The First Brotherhood
by Jerrath92
Summary: Victor Creed is nothing but a memory-or not even one-to the world now. But the mutant who introduces him to a group in hiding also brings him headlong into another war, the very sort of thing he thrives on.-OLD STORY: back in the beginning stages of my FanFiction account.
1. Chapter 1: The Aftermath of an Age

**WARNING! Rated M for language and violence**

**This fan fiction takes place in the days after the destruction of the Island, the demise of Deadpool, and the memory loss of Logan. Logan has no vocal part in the story, only referenced in passing. The story is entirely Victor Creed (as played by Liev Schreiber) and a life he might have had.**

**Feel free to kindly respond.**

**Victor Creed is the property of Marvel. All other characters are made up.**

**To help with an image of other mutants (but you may imagine whoever you wish for the characters):**

**Sloan-Sean Bean; **

**Taggs-Nick Chinlund; **

**Manson-John Malkovich; **

**Meav (pronounced Mayve)-Jennifer Connelly; **

**Todd-Tim Roth; **

**Darien-Peter Stormare; **

**Grant-Chris Cooper; **

**Fang-Liam Cunningham; **

**Bredan-Ed Harris; **

**Chloe-Diane Kruger; **

**Eli-Brendan Hines; **

**Penn-Stellan Skarsgard**

Victor downed his sixth whiskey shot, cringing at the strong, foul taste burning its way down his throat. He had come to accept the fact that he was on his own from here on out until Jimmy came looking for him for one reason or another. If he remembered that they were brothers, Jimmy'd most likely leave him alone, but Stryker had hit him hard with the adamantium bullet and his memories were almost certainly gone for good. If he didn't remember, he'd only see Victor as a threat. Either way, Victor would be on the run for a while with nor real purpose, no goal, no motivation.

"Reload?" asked the bartender tentatively, eying Victor's elongated filthy fingernails clenched around his shot glass.

"Yeah," Victor muttered, keeping his eyes cast down. He watched the amber liquid slosh around in the shot and a few droplets ran down his skin as the bartender nervously overfilled it.

"Problem?" Victor asked.

"No, I've got Tourettes," the bartender lied.

Victor smirked to himself. It was gratifying causing fear in people like this. He had gotten his way more times than any mathematician could count due to the fear he inflicted in others. After all, appearances were everything in today's world and his appearance scared the hell out of almost everyone. He drummed his fingernails on the wooden counter.

"You can leave the bottle."

Gratefully, the bartender set the bottle down and hurried along to tend to another customer.

Victor raised the shot to his lips, tilted his head back, and drank deeply, grimacing once again. He had all the time in the world to wander aimlessly, to do what he pleased, or to simply get drunk at this bar. At the moment, nothing sounded more appealing.

"Hey, you," called someone behind him. Victor pretended not to hear, even though the reference of "you" could only refer to one person in a human-invested place like this. Him.

"Punk in the trench coat," the voice tried

That was definitely him. He spun around, still seated on the rotating chair and leaned casually on the counter. He ditched the shot and scooped up the bottle. "Yeah?"

The leader was heavily tattooed, muscular, and backed by five men concealing some weapon under their leather jackets. The biker jerked his head at the door. "It's a little crowded in here. You should step outside."

"Hmm, nope, I'm fine," Victor answered casually, drinking from the bottle at complete ease.

"Wasn't a suggestion, pal. You're makin' Sal there nervous along with lotta the other boys. This ain't a place for your kind. Outchoo go."

"My kind?" Victor repeated. "Feel free to elaborate on that."

"Druggy, alcoholic, rapist, whatever the hell you are. You ain't one of us. Now getcher ass out."

"Oh, I'm an outsider, am I? That's interesting. But I'm not done here. I'll leave when I'm good and ready. Don't let me crowd your space." He wheeled back to face the counter.

"Too late for that, smart ass."

A hand gripped his shoulder gruffly. He inhaled with the scent of battle on the air. He stood up and turned back to the lead biker who was the manhandling culprit, still holding onto the bottle. He flashed his fang-like teeth in warning. "You-do-not-touch-the-coat," he said dangerously.

"What the hell are you going to do about it, freak?" the biker challenged.

"I don't think you want to stick around to find out."

The bar came alive. Every customer must have been a regular, for they were all burly men armed with knives and pistols. Some even carried clubs and tazers. Victor shook his head. They had brought weapons to a mutant fight. And unless someone decapitated him, as far as he knew, he was indestructible.

He let a snarl escape his lips.

The lead biker stabbed a knife into the soft tissue protecting his ribs. Victor felt the sting of the metal just as if he were human. But he wasn't and the blow might as well have been a cat scratch. He yanked the knife out by the handle and the broken skin sealed instantly. The only trace of the wound was a tear in his black button-up shirt. He grinned at the bikers. "Ouch," he said in a bored voice.

The entity of the bar moved in on him. He flung the bottle aside and sank into a defensive crouch, teeth bared and fingernails lengthened. "Come and get it," he challenged.

"Get him, boys! Kill him!"

Victor bulldozed into the group of five, using his shoulder as a ramming rod. He tackled one biker and sank his claws into the man's chest. The man's screams were music to his ears. He raised one claw for the death blow when he felt a bullet make contact with his spine. He arched backward, growling animal-like in pain. The bullet dropped to the floor with a metallic _clink_. Perfect; he had an exposed back. With someone taking a shot at him every time he moved it would be hours until he could get to the door.

Some dumbass biker decided to try and bring him down by piggyback. Before he could rear up and buck his offender off the biker's hands released his shoulder as if they were torn away. Someone placed their back to his.

"Surf the crowd, mate."

Victor glanced over his shoulder. A man at least two inches shorter than he and no less than five years younger stood there. His topaz hair was spiked and he donned a black tank top with a camo vest, khaki pants and muddy boots. His stance was ready and his hands stretched, bubbling like hot wax as they molded into two hand guns. He winked at Victor. "Door's this way, friend."

"Mutants!" someone cried from the crowd. "Go to Hell!"

Victor's aid raised his pistols threateningly. "You'll go first if you try anything! We're leaving and no one's been killed. Not all of us are a threat to you human lot, but we get pretty damn aggressive if you beat up on us. We stick our necks out for each other if you come at us. Now, while you're still breathing, get out of the way so we can leave. Doesn't matter to us; we'll get out anyway."

"Get out of here, assholes!" the lead biker shouted,

The other mutant pointed his left pistol at the biker's foot and fired. The biker hopped on his good foot, howling in agony. "You shot my toe off you bastard!"

Saluting the bikers with the nozzle of his right pistol, the mutant said cheerily, "Have a nice night, gov. Let's go, mate."

Still back to back, Victor and his escort sidled out the door and out into the late night deserted street. He dusted off his coat.

"You're welcome," said the other mutant.

"I didn't need your help," said Victor, annoyed.

"You didn't need it, but you appreciate it. Would have taken hours to get clear of that place, yeah? Good job I decided to drop in for a nightcap when I did, eh?"

"Piss off, kid."

"Oooh, temper. Listen, you, I can't be more than eight years younger so keep a lid on the 'kid' crap, yeah?"

"I'm not as old as you think, _kid_. I'm a hell of a lot older. Born in Canadian territories in 1832. Surprised?"

"No, not really. You look like you're in your late thirties, early forties. I'm guessing you've been telling people forty-one for a while now, yeah? Thought I was the only one who's been around for a hell of a long time. I'm thirty-seven to the human world. Born in 1849 in Yorkshire, Britain. Sloan Solomon, the mutant weapon. I can sprout almost any weapon from my hands. Few mutants I've run into call me Morph, but friends call me Slo. And I'm going to take a guess that you can sprout fangs and nails-very intimidating."

Victor shook his head. "You know, I met two people similar to you. One was British, he was electrokinetic. I killed him. The other was a stuck-up annoying asshole named Wade that got himself screwed by having a mutant hater plant a computer in his brain and sew up his mouth because he couldn't shut up, like you."

"You're a real nice bloke, you know that? A loner? You can follow me back to a mutant hideout and stay low for a while," Sloan offered.

"No, thanks," said Victor coldly.

"Well then, 'least let me know your name." Sloan extended his hand to shake Victor's.

Victor held up his claw, waggling his fingernails. "You don't want to rub up against these."

"For a mutant, a lot of damn things scare me, but the overgrown fingernails don't. C'mon, mate, just shake."

Victor grudgingly shook Sloan's hand. "Victor Creed."

"Ah, yeah, I see you are," said Sloan.

"Hell's that mean?" Victor demanded.

"Mutants around her all know who you are. You're the reason half of us went into hiding. Scared the crap out of a bunch of us with how you hunted mutants down to put them on the Island. But word is that that's all shut down as of this morning. Witnesses say that you and some steel-clawed bloke brought down Stryker's secret weapon."

"My brother, James."

"Yeah, he left there in a hurry. Looked confused, didn't he?"

Victor snatched at Sloan's neck and held fast to it. "Shut up. Not another word or I'll kill you," he hissed.

"What a way to live, mate. No real aim to life. Existing because you can and you have to. No guts to kill yourself-not that you can do that easily-so you wander. Ever considered trying to live? Meeting people? Settling down? Being someone that people will cherish and remember? It's a mite better than this solitary roaming you're doing."

"You have no idea," Victor whispered, fingernails contracting.

"Try me," Sloan said with a grin,

"I was in the wars, kid. All of them except Revolutionary. Anyone who saw me as a freak I killed and no one could give a rat's ass about it. The battlefield's the only place I fit in. Look at me, Solomon. Black and white, I'm a beast and I can't alter that, now can I?"

"Lot of mutants have it harder than you, mate," Sloan reasoned. "Fluorescent blue skin, glowing eyes, fur. Don't complain; you've got long fingernails and large molars. It could be worse. But if you-or some part of you-wants to try and make up for the past century and a half, the door's open to my home. You coming?"

Victor released Sloan, glaring venomously. "You wouldn't be trying to ambush me, would you Solomon?"

Sloan rubbed his neck where Victor had left five claw marks. "What would be the point of my watching your back be, then? Besides, thought you couldn't die? C'mon, give me some more credit than that."

"Mutants don't have the luxury of credit, Slo. I've only trusted one man and he doesn't know me anymore, so I'm living in a world of doubt, here."

"Whatever," said Sloan impatiently. "You coming or not?"

In spite of himself, Victor managed a grin. "I'm coming."

"The mall," said Victor in disbelief a half hour later when Sloan had pointed out the mutant hideout. "Your top secret underground is in a rundown abandoned _mall_?"

"Yeah, worn down, abandoned, no use to anyone human, just like you, eh? Only joking," Sloan said hastily at the look on Victor's face. "Relax, it's all good."

"And humans don't just waltz in on you? Amazing. How many of you are there?"

"Including me, nine, but we're hoping to pick up some more. If you stick around that makes an even ten. Let me introduce you to the family." Sloan approached the entrance to the Sears side and placed a hand on the broken glass window. "Taggs, I'm coming in and I've got company."

Victor raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. "Is his power turning into a pile of broken glass? That's impressive."

"Not exactly. Taggs listens for intruders. If anything touches glass he can hear it. He can manipulate glass-it's bad-ass, mate. Just a left here to the food court."

Victor rounded the corner and a bright light hit his face. Momentarily blinded, he blinked vigorously and his eyes fell on a group of mutants gathered at one of the dozens of matching tables. As one they rose and reached for their weapons close at hand. Victor spread his arms wide, feeling his fingernails extend in defense.

"Whoa, whoa, _oi!_ He's with me!" Sloan yelled. "Weapons down, it's okay-Todd, you show yourself and get down from that ceiling!"

Victor cocked his head up to see a pale white man appear stuck to the ceiling by his heels and fingertips. Even from this height Victor could tell that he was short and had hunched shoulders. He dropped to the ground before the others, smirking. His lip was cut diagonally and he sported a swollen cheek bone. His attire looked similar to an inmate's; all baggy orange with a white undershirt and black shoes. He smoothed back his caramel brown hair and winked at Sloan.

"Picked 'im up at the bar, didja? That's Creed, innet? Smells like 'im."

"Another Brit," Victor grumbled. "And a smart-ass one at that."

"He's on his own," Sloan explained to the others. "Stryker's gone and he's got nowhere to go. It's good. I stepped in when a couple of bikers and the whole bar jumped him."

"Lemme guess, it was something he said? No? Then he looked at someone funny."

"And yes, this is the smart-ass of the group," Sloan announced. "Todd Legrand, chameleon."

"That's me, Vic. Can I call you Vic?"

"No," said Victor sharply, flashing his teeth..

"Vike it is," said Todd, stepping back.

Sloan pointed out the mutant with extremely curly hair, sideburns, and a pointed goatee. He had two star-shaped scars at the outer corners of his eyes and wore a leather zip up jacket with no sleeves. His pants were tucked into his shin length boots. A shard of glass stuck out from between his teeth.

"Victor, that's Callum Taggs, a glass manipulator."

Taggs barely inclined his head.

"Manson Davis, a hundred and eighty-nine pounds of blockade. Nothing can knock him over or get around him if he's set up proper."

Manson was bald and had a vivid brown beard and mustache. He wore an old cop's outfit; a tan over shirt with a white tee and black pants and shoes.

"That's Grant Quill, x-ray vision. Person or object, he can see right through it. Makes you self conscious, yeah?"

Grant was shorter than all but the two women and Todd. His jet black hair was messy on his head and he had deep bags under his eyes. He was dressed in black from head to toe.

"Darien Ash, a time stopper. And the hulking wet bloke is Errol Pennington. He just melts into a regular Lochness monster, innet that right, Penn?"

Penn did appear rather damp. Unexplained water dripped from his saggy, oversized clothes, which made his six foot plus self seem even more out of place. His blonde hair clung to his head. Darien, on the other hand, looked more like a poacher. His hair was prematurely gray and his eyes were droopy.

"Bredan and Chloe Harley, brother and sister. Bredan can go up in a ball of fog; makes a quick escape hell of a lot easier. Chloe lights up brighter than the big ol' burning ball in the sky."

"And she's with me, so don't get any ideas," said Taggs instantly, stepping closer to Chloe.

"And this is Meav Gardener. She can, erm, well…"

"I can give off the scent that attracts someone the most and make it toxic. For example, if you suddenly smell Canadian Pine, you'll know that you've pissed me off."

Victor nodded. "First female mutant I've seen that has a deadly power and isn't so much of damn beauty pageant princess to not use it. Props to you miss."

"Sense of humor and an early nineteenth century gentleman's manner towards women. That never comes hand in hand," commented Penn.

Victor noted how Meav concealed herself in dark hand-me-downs. Her hair was dark chocolate brown at shoulder length and straight. Piercing gray eyes locked with his.

"Are you staying with us or moving on, Mr. Creed?" she asked.

"I haven't decided yet," Victor answered truthfully.

"If you stay, we're glad to have you. If you're leaving, keep a lid on our whereabouts unless you want us hunting you down and slitting your throat," said Manson.

Victor chuckled, his voice deep and menacing. "I'd like to see that. Blunt, aren't you?"

"We have to be. But what do we call you while you're here?" asked Taggs

"You all can call me whatever you want, but _you_," Victor spared Todd a look, "stick to Creed."

"You got it, Vike,' Todd responded.

Victor snarled, whipping his coat out of the path of his legs to get a running start on Todd. Sloan pointed a finger at Todd. "You'll get your ass kicked, Todd. Just back away, don't make eye contact, and shut up."

"I'm not scared of the feline mutant traitor, Slo. Let 'im try and hit me."

"One more word out of your fat mouth and I'll get several hits in," Victor promised, flexing.

Todd lifted his middle finger to Victor.

In two giant cat-like leaps Victor had scooped Todd up by the chest, dangling him by his claws. "That's a nice outfit, pal. Makes an easy target."

Todd hacked up spit into Victor's face. "Eat it, Creed."

Victor tightened his fist. The scent of familiar Canadian Pine hit his nostrils at the same time that a cold hand closed around his. He turned and his eyes fell on Meav beside him. She had a disapproving look on her face and shook her head. "No, Victor."

"Almost would serve him right," said Bredan. "He says what he thinks and he thinks with his ass, even if he is smart."

Meav lowered Victor's and with ease only because he let her. "I'll show you where you can sleep tonight."

"No inappropriate stuff, you two," Sloan called. Meav shot him a dirty look. She led Victor to a smaller store near what had once been Foley's. This particular store had been furbished with broken down couches and a mattress with holes.

"We're open to every mutant who wants peace," Meav explained at the look on Victor's face. Whenever we see furniture, clothes, or supplies that have been thrown out with a lot of use left we bring them back here. But this should do for you. The rest of us are on the east side of the food court if you need us."

"Why so isolated?" asked Victor playfully.

"Well, like you said, we're blunt. We have a bit of time to react if you try anything while we're sleeping. No offense."

"Ouch. But having just said that, you aren't bothered by the fact that you're all alone with me and something might happen to you? I only ask because I get that a lot."

"I can protect myself, so no, it doesn't bother me."

"Hmm, it would bother most people. I tend to have that unwanted affect on people I actually want to have a civil conversation with. I scare away the few people I like-or have liked. It can be pretty damn annoying."

Meav spread a blanket over the mattress. Victor placed his hand over the pile of blankets she returned to. "I can do it. I don't need room service."

"I think I know your problem, Victor," said Meav with a nod at his hands. "You ever considered cutting those?"

"I need them."

"Well, I guess you're out of luck then."

"I always thought it was my face."

"No, it's a nice face, even with the fangs. It's when you bare them and get ready to attack that you scare people. Must be hard. If you're as old as the rumors say then you've been alone for quite some time. I'm sorry. I can't imagine-"

"Shh." Victor held up his had to silence her. His eyes darted over to the corner behind the mattress. "Come out of there, chameleon. I can smell you."

Todd appeared, grimacing. "Taggs picked up some mutants movin' this way, Meav. They aren't kids. Group of about fifteen men, all 'tween twenty-five and' forty-seven. Manson reckons it's a hostile group. We're goin' to check it out, 'cept for Chloe. Her power's sort of a giveaway at night. Let's go."

Meav prodded Victor. "You coming? We could use you if there's a fight."

"Seems like the only damn reason I'm here. Sure, what the hell," Victor said indifferently, though the blood boiled deep in his veins at the urge of battle.

Todd seemed less than happy about this. "I'm gonna scope it out and get back to you. Tell Taggs I took some glass so he'd better tune in."

"Don't do anything stupid, please, Todd," Meav said wearily.

Todd blew her a kiss. "You be careful too, love." With that he melted into the wall and disappeared.

"Love?" Victor repeated inquisitively.

"He's British; a lot of them talk like that. Not Sloan, though. His accent's much rougher, just like him."

"Meav, let's go already," called Grant from the hall. "Oh, _he's_ coming, is he?"

"I was, but if you think the eight of you can take on fifteen male mutants with the extent of your destructive abilities, you go right on ahead. I'll find something to eat. Let me know how that goes."

"Victor…" Meav groaned.

"No, we could use you," said Grant. "You're indestructible, right? Victor shrugged. "Mostly. Haven't been tested with poison, overwhelming explosions, decapitation, extreme heat, or having someone tear my natural body parts off, but besides that, yeah."

"Well, some of these mutants might be shooting some stuff at us. Take a bullet or fifty for the team, huh?"

"When did I agree to or actually become part of this team?"

"Unanimously by me eight seconds ago."

Out of the corner of his eye Victor saw Meav conceal what looked like a smile.

"They smell disgusting," Victor commented.

Manson had let him choose his position amongst the others as they prepared for the fifteen oncoming male mutants. So as to not leave any clues that might lead the opposing mutants back to the hideout should things go wrong, they decided to cut their route off ten blocks away. Already Victor had seen that the mutants had much more devastating powers than his own. No doubtedly he could handle a good number of them himself, but having someone watch his back wasn't such a bad idea. These nomads made him uneasy and it didn't help that Todd hadn't reported back.

"Don't do anything unless I tell you, Victor," said Manson quietly. "Things can get ugly fast and if you make a move early it could jeopardize the safety of this team, in which case we may just have to kill you."

"I can't get over how hospitable and polite you all are," said Victor sarcastically. "I get the feeling that you don't trust me."

"You haven't earned it yet. Now shut up, here they come."

There was no leader who walked ahead of the other. They all came to a halt at different times, each eyeing one of Victor's companions. More eyes lingered on Meav than anyone else. Victor flashed one of them his white fangs.

The mutant with bright lime green eyes flicked a forked purple tongue. "You're in our way," he said, mainly speaking to Sloan.

"That's what we were aiming for," said Manson.

"Good. Now move."

"You can walk around," Darien suggested.

"Or we can walk through," growled the mutant sporting three extra arms.

"Might be a tight squeeze," Penn observed.

"Not if you move your ass," said the mutant in constant motion by switching between various disguises. He wreaked and it stung Victor's nostrils. He cringed and called out to the offender. "Marijuana, pal? Or is a mutant drug?"

"Missed the part where that' your business," the accused snapped.

"In your condition there's a lot you'd miss," Victor retorted.

"Don't I know you?" asked the green-eyed mutant. His irises quivered curiously. "Creed, isn't it?"

"Might be," said Victor dismissively.

"Yeah, that's him," agreed the mutant giving off yellow smoke. "The hell you doin' with Ob's new passé?"

"Ob?" Victor glanced down the line.

Manson replied for him. "I know him, used to be in his group; that's how I figured they were hostile. Back then they called me Ob. Mutants like them prefer an alias to their real name, descriptive of their ability. Being a barricade, or obstacle, I got stuck with Ob. When I left I formed this group and we kept our real names."

"So, like I said, the hell you doin' with them, Creed? We been lookin' for you, come lookin' early this mornin'. Boys already gave you an admission name. How you like Sabertooth?"

"That's cute," Victor said nonchalantly. "Who is this punk, Manson?"

"Panic, that's the only name I got out of him," Manson answered darkly.

"Claustrophobia," said Panic. "Humans freak out when they can't see. For mutants it drains their power. This is Roulette, Def, Arachnid, Komodo, Shade, Black Hole, Jericho, Tri-Star, Caz, Nuke, Phobe, Age-O, Volt, and Howler."

"Sounds like a weapons list," Sloan observed. "Very scary."

"We've got your camo, kid. Put a lid on it," said Arachnid, the five-handed freak.

"Camo? In English, you moron."

Black Hole pushed something either imaginary or invisible forward. He jammed his elbow into the air in front of him and the flickering body of Todd appeared, dropping to its knees. He shot Black Hole a death glare and cursed.

"Sent the chameleon boy to spy, did you? Caught him though, didn't we?" Nuke taunted. "You want him back, move."

"And Sabertooth comes with us," Tri-Star added.

"So does the pretty lil' thing you all seem to be shielding," piped up Age-O.

"Go to hell," Victor snarled.

"Maybe you didn't hear us," said Roulette, stepping forward.

"Loud and clear. Our answer is no. Now!" Manson hollered.

Victor reacted before the others. He already had reached Volt who sent lines of jagged electricity at him by the time Sloan had molded his hands into miniature automatics. Victor caught the bolt in his chest and was blasted backwards with his shirt smoldering. He let out a beastly growl and returned to his previous all-fours stance to attack Volt. This time he dodged and weaved Volt's fury until he overpowered him and sank his claws into Volt's abs, pulling outward. Volt screamed, his body shooting off random sparks.

Howler opened his mouth wide and let out a sound unbearable to withstand. Victor clapped his hands over his ears and Roulette came spinning out of nowhere to send Victor in a back flipping haze off of Volt. Victor's eyes dripped waterfalls with the strain to try and identify Roulette's face in the madly spinning blur. Finally he struck out a claw, swiping it down diagonally to cut across Roulette's left shoulder blade to right hip. Roulette tangled his feet and toppled.

Todd swooped in to finish Roulette off and Victor towered over Volt for a brief moment before he plunged his hand deeper and gouged out his opponent's stomach and intestines, crushing them by claw. Behind him Bredan shielded Meav who crouched behind him and shot at Jericho. Taggs smashed a car parts store's windows, lined them up on either side of him, and directed them like troops at Komodo and Def. Penn and Grant were back to back battling Shade and Caz. Arachnid made a lunge for Bredan who vaporized into the air. His outline lingered but Arachnid stumbled right through him into Meav. She kicked him hard in the groin and scrambled to get away when he caught onto her ankle with two of his five hands. He pinned her to the ground and bent low to sniff her hair.

The monster in Victor's chest ripped out of him in a roar that made his throat bleed. He had covered the distance between him and Arachnid in two large leaps and lifting him bodily, hurtled him some twenty feet.

"Victor, he's coming in!" Meav screamed, pointing. Victor instinctively grabbed her wrist and positioned himself in front of her as a yellow cloud enveloped them. His nostrils panicked, corrupted by the cloud of thick fog. His eyes were useless. Ears straining to pick up a sound, he lowered himself into attack position, bringing Meav with him.

"I can't see a damn thing," he whispered, aware that the sounds of battle had stopped.

"I can't do anything. The smoke will just wash the scent out."

"Stay low and close to me," Victor instructed. He could feel her cold breath on the back of his neck. He tightened his hand around her wrist and she exhaled sharply. "Sorry," he apologized.

"How do we get out?"

Victor's ears picked up a footstep. "Like this." He pulled himself in close to her and pressed himself against her, shielding her from a stream of oncoming bullets. He wrapped both arms around her waist and spiraled sideways out of the cloud. Sound blasted in his ears on full volume and he landed on his back with Meav on top. He rolled over to put her underneath and protect her while struggling not to crush her. Heavy hostile fire rained down on him. He felt the sharp pain even though the bullets bounced off of his back as fast as they hit it.

Manson stepped over Victor and spread himself wide to deflect the onslaught. "Split up, run!"

Victor grabbed Meav's hand once again and took off down the street, dragging her along effortlessly. Only when her shuddering breath gasped in protest did he slow down at all. She rested one hand on his arm and bent double, wheezing.

"I can carry you," he offered.

She shook her head vigorously, inhaling through her nose. "J-just give me a-a minute."

"Can we go back?"

Meav touched a finger to a car window. "Taggs, is it safe?" She waited a moment before the car jolted on its own. "That's an all clear. Let's turn around."

"Did he hurt you?" asked Victor as offhandedly as he could.

"No."

The scent of salty copper blood was light on the air, but present nonetheless. Victor bent over and rolled up Meav's pant leg to expose two deep fingernails gashes.

"That bastard-"

"I'm fine. Really, I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"We need to get back."

At the slower pace it took almost twenty minutes to return to the hideout and then clear themselves with Taggs through the windows. Inside Manson and Chloe both hugged Meav in relief and Sloan welcomed Victor back. Taggs and Grant nodded appreciatively to him. Todd leaned casually against one of the tables. He waved to Meav.

"Hello, love. I kept my promise, nothin' stupid."

Meav examined a new bruise on the back of his neck. "No, you didn't, you liar."

"You didn't neither. I can see the blood, y'know."

Sloan cut in, "She's right. You need to be more careful. Good job Victor was there. We took three of them out; Roulette, Volt, and Caz. Victor took on one on his own and they saw it, so now they're pissed and they'll be looking for us. So no one leaves here alone. Buddy up, the lot of you."

"Looks like you have to stick around for a while, Victor," Meav teased.

The others flocked to their own hangout areas in due time, leaving just Victor and Todd. The latter had a pained expression on his face; a scowl with the ghost of a hatred and fear all the while trying to maintain his normal smug grin. His fingers drummed on top of his knee aimlessly.

"Stickin' 'round for a spell, that right?"

"Looks like it."

"Well, look here, Vike. She may not know just what sort of monster you are, but I do an' I'm only gonna warn you once. You leave her alone, hear me? I call you Vike for a reason. Short for Viking, the natural plunderers and rapists of the world. I know your kind and you're jus' waitin' to get in her pants, innet that right? You stay away from her or you'll be sorry."

"Big words coming from Camo Boy. That short for chameleon? Your mistake could have killed all of them. Shove it up your ass, pal. I'll do it for you if I have to."

"I swear, if you even look at her in a way I don' like you'll find yourself wakin' up with somethin' stuck up _your_ ass. Think about that. An' don' smirk at me like that." Todd stomped off, blending into the wall as he went.

Victor smiled to himself.


	2. Chapter 2: A Black Hole

He sat down heavily on the broken down couch which sagged under his weight. This had always been a bit of a problem. Though he wasn't light, he wasn't overweight either, just the average two hundred pounds of steely muscle. He could exert three times his body weight in a punch but when it came down to the simple matter of sitting on a couch somehow all of his weight was enough to collapse it. He groaned aloud.

The sound of raised voices drifted into his ears. He tossed his coat onto his bed and snuck out into the hallway, following the voices. Even through the closed door, the noise was strongest outside a bare jewelry store. From here he could make out Todd's slightly ecstatic tone and Meav's angry one. Ever so precariously, he eased the door open and caught sight of the two arguing, barely a foot within each other.

"It's none of your business what I say to him! And it's not my fault that you made yourself out to be an idiot and enemy already! No one else seems to have a problem with him except you-"

"I see the way he looks atchoo. Iss like you're somthin' to eat for 'im. For all you know he could maul you if you get too cozy with 'im."

"I'm _trying_ to make a new life for him. You know what it was like for him, don't you? Warfare and killing is what he thinks he's made for. That shouldn't happen to anyone, mutant or human. He doesn't know any better and he needs help. I want to give that help to him but I can't if you keep hounding on me so back off!"

"He's a dangerous, theivin', lyin' low dirty bastard. He'll take advantage of you. You stay 'way from I'm, hear me?"

"You have no say over what I feel like doing, Todd Legrand. Mind your own damn business and butt out of mine. He saved my life twice; I trust him," said Meav shrilly.

Todd laughed mockingly in an unusual voice. "Trust 'im? Oh, I'll bet you do. You liked how 'is arms felt 'round you, didnchoo? Will you trust 'im when he's stripped off all your clothes an' done you; when he's raped you and left you pregnant, I wonder?"

Meav let out a cry of disgust and slapped Todd hard enough across the face to make him bleed. Todd touched his cheek in slight shock. Meav's pale face went red. "How _dare_ you? I ought to knock you out right now you-"

Todd drew back his arm and delivered a square punch to Meav's jaw, laying her flat on the floor. His eyes were alight with an insane fire. He dropped to one knee and grabbed her throat. "Lookit me, you dirty, filthy whore! Where were you when we split up? Damn it, answer me! You did it, didnchoo? You had sex with 'im! I'll kill you!"

Victor's monster launched him forward, laying the door flat. He seized Todd around the shoulders and brought him down, slamming his face into the concrete floor. Repeatedly without mercy he pounded Todd's head into the solid ground. "I'll kill you, you son of a bitch!" He flipped Todd over to face him. Todd blinked through the blood running down from his head.

"Vike?"

"Shut up!" Victor buried his fist in the most sensitive spot of Todd's ribs and contracted his claws into the fleshy skin. Todd screamed and bit into Victor's hand. He bent Victor's wrist in the direction of breaking. Victor released him to save his wrist and Todd scrambled back over to where he had left Meav.

"He came to save you, didn' he? He's protectin' his kid inside of you! You're pregnant! _Whore_!" Todd smacked her.

Sloan and Darien barged into the room. Victor reeled Todd back in by the back of his thighs and ripped through his back. Sloan fought to pry Victor away.

"Get off of him Victor! Let him go!" Sloan yelled.

"He hit her!" Victor frothed. "He called her a whore! I'll kill him! Get off, Slo!"

"Enough, Victor!" Darien slapped his hands together and Victor felt himself freeze. Only Darien moved, securing Victor's lifeless hands behind his back and positioning Sloan's knees on top of them. He moved Todd into the same restrained position and snapped his fingers. Victor felt Sloan's weight on him and struggled.

"Stay still, Victor!"

"Get _off_! Damn it, get off of me!"

"What happened?" Darien demanded.

"That bastard attacked her-called her a whore-choke her-I'll kill him!"

Todd's skin color in his face was turning purple. "It wasn' me. I didn' do it."

Victor made another swipe at Todd's legs. "Yes you did you lying piece of-"

"Victor, please," said Darien impatiently. "What do you mean you didn't do it?"

"I tried to stop it. I could see her but I couldn't stop. I felt him doing it. He planted the anger in me and I lost control." Tears ran down Todd's sweaty and bloody face. "I wouldn't hurt her."

"That's a load of bullshit!" Victor bucked Sloan off and made a dive for Todd. "He's a crazy sick woman striker! Liar! You _liar_!"

"Get him out of here, Darien!" Sloan hollered. "Taggs, get your ass in this room, I need help!" Sloan held onto Victor's legs, pleading with him to stop his pursuit of Todd who Darien escorted from the room in bondage. "I swear I'll shoot you in your ass if you don't stop moving!"

Taggs arrived and forced Victor into a kneeling position, twisting his arm back painfully.

"Easy, easy. Let go, asshole!"

"If we let you got are you gonna behave, Victor?"

"Just-let-go," Victor seethed through his teeth.

"Kay, let go, Slo. He ain't going nowhere. Let him go."

Victor shrugged the two pairs of hands off and hurried over to Meav who hadn't moved since Todd was pried away from her. He lifted her shoulders gently and spoke to her in a soft voice that he admittedly had never used in his life. "Meav, how bad are you hurt? Open your eyes honey. Come on, look at me."

She obeyed, blinking fearfully up into his face. For a moment she didn't move but her motionless gave way to tears and she buried her face in his shirt, sobbing. Her hands clung to the fabric. Victor hesitated and then carefully placed his own arms around her back. "It's okay."

Sloan and Taggs slowly backed out to leave them alone. Victor continued his gentle caressing of her trembling shoulders.

"How much did you hear?" she whispered.

"Right at the 'it's none of your business part'," said Victor honestly.

"How could he _say_ that? How could he call me a-a whore?"

"Try not to think about it. It might not have been him doing that to you."

"You don't believe that."

"No, I don't, but you need to. It'll help you. And it wouldn't be the first time I'm wrong. From what I could see, he was jealous. As if there's anything to be jealous about. Nothing happened; he had no right."

"Thank you—for coming in after him."

"Thank you for sticking up for me."

Meav snuggled deeper into his embrace. "Will you promise me something, Victor?"

Promises. Humans were doomed to promises. So many lives were lost because of them…but he was a mutant, so what the hell?

"Sure."

Her voice dropped, became softer, and more tempting to give in to. "Don't leave me. No matter what happens, please don't leave."

"Can I ask why?"

"It's time for you to change. You have to stay if you want that to happen."

"I don't think that's possible, Meav. I was born to be what I am," said Victor doubtfully.

"I'm not asking you to give up who you are, just what you've become. You belong with us. We need you."

"Who's we?" Victor scoffed.

"Everyone. Todd may not want you here but he needs you. Not all of us would have made it if you hadn't been there. Don't you see what's happening? You've already changed. Would you have bothered risking yourself for anyone besides your brother any time before this?"

In truth, no he wouldn't. But he also noticed that before he met this rebellious mutant group he would never have dared to start up a bond with anyone, nor would he have allowed a woman, let alone a living soul use him as comfort. Then again, no woman would ever have wanted to accept comfort from him before this either. He was changing. Jimmy wasn't the only one who could be appreciated and needed.

Victor Creed had a heart after all.

"I promise, Meav. I won't leave you."

Through his shirt he felt Meav's cold lips on the material as a demonstration of thanks. She drifted off to sleep in his arms and he lifted her in them to carry her back to her room. He followed her scent to an Ambercrombie and Fitch store and found her bed in the very back section. Effortlessly he lay her down and pulled a blanket over her. On the barrel that served as her nightstand he scratched a glowing sun with his fingernail.

In the darkness he could see two bruises beginning to form on her almost transparent skin…Todd's handiwork.

The stench of the chameleon was heavy and easy to follow. Victor had no trouble locating the store where Darien had imprisoned Todd. Where on earth he had found such a large supply of handcuffs and chins was beyond Victor and he wondered how Todd had managed to sit up with all of the added weight of them. He was asleep, his face troubled, sweaty, and dirty. His head sagged on his chest. He looked completely helpless and unaware of who was in the room with him.

It would be too easy to finish him off, but the others would know who did it. He'd have to run. Sloan, Tags, and Manson would feel betrayed and hunt him down. Meav would be torn apart. What would be the purpose of killing him, then? He had sought out Bradley and John for Stryker, not on his own. There was no purpose served in murdering Todd…but he'd find the truth one way or another. He stood over Todd and kicked his leg.

"Wake up."

Todd shook his head half-asleep. "Go away."

"Wake up," Victor repeated.

Todd's eyes came groggily open. The light from the hallway cast Victor's shadow over him. He went rigid for a second in fear and then struggled against his bonds. Victor slapped his hand over Todd's mouth and raised him up chains and all until he was at eye level. He felt Todd turn slippery as he flashed colors back and forth, attempting to conceal himself in self defense. Victor bent his fingernails inward, grazing the skin all along Todd's cheek.

"Scream and I'll kill you, chameleon," he threatened. "Stop doing that so I can talk to you."

Todd fell limp, eyes wide in fear.

'You know what you've done to her? She wouldn't' stop crying for hours. She trusted you and you spat in her face. Why?" Victor lowered his hand.

"I told you, it wasn' me. I'd never-I wouldn'-ever hurt her."

"But you did. Don't try and tell me it wasn't you in there shaking her and calling her a whore, accusing her of having sex with me."

"Stop," Todd begged. "I know she'd never do that. He planted all those words in my throat-made me say them. It was 'is anger, not mine. I swear it."

"Who?"

"Black Hole. He found me hidin'-grabbed me-I could feel 'im overpower me. He turned me 'gainst her an' made me attack. I couldn' stop it."  
"He made you hurt her?"

"Yes. I wouldn' hurt her. I care for her too much to ever hurt her in any way. But I dunno if it'll happen again an' I won' risk it. Tell her I'm sorry. Tell her I'd never-"

"Shut up. I don't need to hear it. I'll tell her but if I find out you've lied about this I'll rip your out your heart and punch a hole in your brain. Got it?"

"Yeah."

Victor dropped Todd in a metal heap, turned on his heel, and left.

"My threat still stands, Vike," Todd called after him in apparently what he thought-or rather hoped-was a strong voice. "You can't seduce her."

Stopping dead in the doorway Victor spun around. So, he seduced women, did he? He stomped back in and stamped ruthlessly down on Todd's left- handed middle and index fingers. "I don't think you're in a position to be making threats, Camo Boy. I'd keep my mouth shut unless I wanted the bigger mutant breaking something bigger next time."

Todd's eyes watered and he mustered a look of absolute, ever-present hate…something Victor sensed would never fade.

"She wouldn't let me come in," Chloe complained the next morning at breakfast. Taggs had an arm slung around the back of her chair as he chewed on a protein bar. He patted her arm and pecked her on the cheek as he rose to pack her uneaten food in the refrigerator. "She had a rough night, baby. Nothin' personal."

_Rough_ and_ personal,_ thought Victor to himself. He had caught on to the fact that Sloan, Taggs, and Darien wanted to keep the events of the night on mute. It made no difference to him; he had what he needed.

"Did any of you hear something last night?" Chloe asked, looking around the tables. From behind her perched on the balcony overlooking the food court Victor commented, "I was on the other end, but I'm sure it wasn't anything."

"It sounded like screaming," Chloe insisted.

"It's the city, sis, 'course you heard screaming," Bredan pointed out. Chloe, however, was not to be put out. She stared directly at Taggs, hoping to force him into divulging information.

"I swear it was Todd. And he's not here this morning, is he?"

"Said he had something to do downtown," Sloan invented, crushing his cornflakes with the back of his spoon.

"But you said we weren't supposed to leave and he went _alone_."

"Yeah, well when has Todd ever done what I say or Manson for the matter?"

Victor leapt down from the balcony, landing lightly on his feet. He stuffed a granola bar into his pocket and prepared to make his exit when Grant called him back.

"Where you going?"

"Back to my end of the mall."

"Who's the granola bar for?"

"Not you."

"Who?"

"Who do you think? I'll eat it later. Shove off."

"Grant, if it bothers you so much just _ask_ him," Manson said resignedly. Victor glanced at him inquisitively. "He wants to know how you heal. He's x-rayed you and there's nothing special keeping you together."

"Runs in the family," said Victor shortly. He hurried off before Grant could pose another question. He knocked lightly on Meav's door, checking that no one had followed him.

"Go away, Chloe. I don't feel good," came Meav's voice from deep inside.

"It's Victor."

"Victor? Come in."

He turned the knob and stepped inside. One or two small lights were switched on, but Meav hadn't even bothered getting dressed. Her pajamas were baggy from a restless night. She sat cross-legged on her bed, hands clasped in her lap. Victor closed the door behind him.

"Should I ask?"

Meav shook her head.

"I just decided to drop and bring you something in case you get hungry later on. I figured you wouldn't want to go out there where the others are. Here." He held out the granola bar to her. She blinked at him through watery eyes. When she spoke her voice was raspy from a night of weeping.

"I woke up, hoping that it was just a nightmare. But I smelled your scent on my hair and I knew." Fresh tear leaked free.

Victor carefully sat down beside her. "C'mon, honey, don't do that. Come here." He embraced her with one arm and pulled her in next to his side. "That's really all it was-a nightmare. I talked to Todd and it'll all be fine." Meav looked hopefully.

"You know that mutant that caught him spying, Black Hole? He must have been able to plant hostility in him that made him—do what he did. He said to tell you he's sorry. I could tell it was a sincere apology. He was bawling his eyes out when he told me."

"Did he apologize to _you_?"

"No, why would he? I was the reason you were having the argument in the first place, even if Black Hole didn't force him to attack you. He's as pissed as ever at me." He decided to leave out the event of Todd's fingers breaking.

"I want to see him."

"Sloan doesn't want anyone talking to him-"Victor caught the disappointed look on Meav's face, "-but I can get you in. Come on."

It was a tight squeeze. Penn passed by the door to the store where Todd was being held, oblivious to who was inside. Victor opened the door silently and guided Meav in. He closed the door to avoid suspicion. "He's against the back wall. Give me your hand."

Meav carefully intertwined her fingers through his and he led her right up to where Todd was. He hadn't moved from where Victor had left him earlier. Victor could hear his rattled breathing and saw his eyes closed even in the dark. Meav, however, was blind to seeing him.

"Is he here?"

"Right at your feet. Hey, wake up chameleon." Victor nudged Todd's shoe with his own and the latter stirred.

"Who is it? Vike?"

"It's me, Todd," said Meav softly.

"Meav?" Todd said in a strangled voice. "I'm so sorry, love. I didn' want to, I swear. I never-"

"I know, Victor told me. It's okay, I understand. Are you hurt?"

"Never mind me. I hit you, are _you_ alright? Is it bad?"

"It's fine. But I want you to know that even after all of that I'm not giving in to what you said. I'm going to help Victor. He's staying with us and if there's a fight, he might be our only chance of surviving."

"Thought you said you wanted to change 'im?" said Todd grumpily. "Make 'im give up killin'?"

"No, I want him to give up killing just because he can or wants to, not because he has to in self defense," Meav corrected. "People have had a bad influence on him by doing what all men do—shooting, cursing, and beating the hell out of each other to get things done. All he needs is someone to _ask_ instead of _order_ him."

"You can' change 'im, Meav. He's bent on carnage an' pain he is. He'd have kept goin' an' smashed my face in if Sloan an' Darien hadn' come in. Y'know he wudda killed me?"

"Not for no reason or because he would have wanted to." Meav defended. "He was protecting me. He saw you as a danger to me, that's all."

"No, he saw me as an easy target an' he knew it'd be simple to kill me. He wouldn' have held back if Sloan an' Darien didn' come bargin' in when they did. He'd have torn my throat out. _How_ can you not see that?"

"It's not his fault. You just get pissed because you two hate each other and everyone else gets along with him-"

"No, I'm pissed 'cuz you defend 'im all the time! You're blind to what he really is. Are you thick, Meav? You takin' a bottle of stupid every mornin' so that you won' understand?"

Victor caught the change in Todd's voice—deeper, rougher, not his. "That's enough," he said loudly.

"Why didn' you tell me he was right there?" Todd fumed. "You enjoy seein' this, seein' me suffer, donchoo? The two of you are workin' together to make my life hell!"

"Victor…" Meav began.

"Get back," Victor ordered. "Now!" He scooped her up and away as Todd lunged, chains clinking madly. "There he goes again. We need to leave."

"Bitch!" Todd screamed.

In his arms Victor felt Meav's pulse quicken and her heart skip a beat. "It's not him," he said loudly. "You understand? Listen to me, Meav. It's not him. See, it doesn't even look like him. Let's go now." His hand stayed at the small of her back on the journey to the door.

Todd refused to let up. "Bastard, whore! What're you doin' behind my back? She'll give birth to an animal; jus' like its father!"

Meav caught Victor's arm. "Let it go. Don't hurt him."

"I'm going to kill that son of a bitch," he swore. "I'll find him." He lifted Todd and shook him, forcing eye contact. "I know you hear me, Black Hole. You can hear but you can barely see. You can't hide. I'll find you and make your miserable mutant life a living hell. Then I'll end it. Start running, you bastard."

As he let go Todd slid down to the floor and laughed. The glint in his eye was alien to him. His hands were contracted as he fought back at the force threatening to overpower him while his face antagonized Victor. "You can't find me, Creed. And you've got it backwards; we're coming for you. You killed Volt and Caz and all of your friends are going to pay for it. Starting with Camo Boy; he's already mine."

Victor pointed at Meav. "Do—not—move." He sank a claw into Todd's thigh and the latter gave a cry that was all his own and not Black Hole's. "Look at me, chameleon! Fight him! You both can see me but he's stronger than you right now. Are you going to let him keep it that way? Fight him, get your control back. You can feel the pain, not him. Use the pain to come back."

"No." The voice was half Todd's, half Black Hole's.

"They'll come after Meav! They'll hunt down Sloan and Taggs and everybody else unless you can get a hold on yourself! Do you want to be responsible for her death? Fight!"

"I—can't."

"Yes, you can! You _are_! Come _on_!"

The evil smile flickered back in his face. Victor maintained control over his savagery, but he had to act. He bit down on the crook of Todd's neck, hard enough to make blood seep. Todd rattled the chains in agony.

"I promise, the pain will stop—I can make it stop—if you just come back and look—at—me! Fight it, you son a bitch, fight back!"

"_No!_"

"Do you know who I am? Look at my face, damn you!"

Todd arched his back and roared for the heavens to hear.

Victor withdrew his claws. He tapped Todd's face with the back of his hand. "Look here, at me. Hey." Wearily, Todd opened his eyes.

"You see me? You know who I am now? Where you are? Who you are?"

"Yes."

"I need you to listen. What can you hear?"

Todd's head drooped. "Sirens, people talkin', a water cooler."

"Do you know where this place is?"

"Near a fire department, just outside of Pittsburgh. House with the brown fence and green mailbox."

"That's good. Good job." Victor snapped the chains at Todd's wrists and ankles and slung him over his shoulder as easily as if he were a sports jacket.

"What are you doing?" Meav asked.

"I need him to help me find Black Hole. He's seen the house where they're hiding. He's seen it before, I don't know how. Right now, he's in complete control of his body, but if he gets pissed again Black Hole will be able to see and hear everything. Black Hole can't be allowed to know that I'm coming after him right now. I'm going to blindfold him and put earplugs in him just in case. If I need to know anything else you'll talk to him so that Black Hole won't pick up any clues."

"What'll you do when we get there, Victor? You can't take them all on at once; they'll-"

"They'll what? _They'll what_? Kill me? I'm dying to see them try."

"You don't know what all of them can do! One of them may be able to get in your head and blow your brain cells. You have no idea what you're walking into and I won't be able to help you physically. I'm not the best fighter."

"No, but we're pretty damn good," said Taggs from up ahead. "You'll need our help, Victor." He motioned and Sloan, Manson, and Darien.

"How the hell do you know what I'm talking about?"

"Todd's got a watch, pal," said Taggs slyly. "I heard everything through the glass surface. We're coming, that's the end of it. Give Todd to me. Manson will take care of the blindfold."

"I don't need your help," Victor said coldly.

"Yeah, you do," Sloan disagreed.

"Let me rephrase that; I don't want your help. I'm just after Black Hole, that's it. Once I get him I'll be out of there."

"Who do you think everyone's going to be protecting when you get there, mate? For someone with your reputation, you can be incredibly stubborn and stupid. Trust me; you'll be glad that we're there in a bit." Sloan lowered Todd from Victor's shoulder so that Manson could string a blindfold around his eyes. He stuffed wadded up Kleenex into Todd's ears.

'Now that these idiots have decided to tag along, you stay here Meav," said Victor.

"No, I'm coming-"

"You are not," said Manson. "This will be messy. I don't want you to see it. Stay here. Grant, Penn, Bredan, and Chloe are all staying because they're not as experienced and I hate to say it, but neither are you. No offense, but you'll only get in the way."

"I can help. I have a killing power, damn it. And I'm not sitting here while—while—"

"You'd trust me on this, right?" said Victor, taking her hand. "Between me and Manson nothing can touch us. We'll be back in four hours, on the dot, promise."

Meav hesitated, but nodded slowly. "On the dot. If you're late I'll-"

"No, you won't," Victor finished for her.

They made their exit through Dillard's with Sloan and Darien supporting Todd between them. Victor kept to the front, senses keen for any disturbance. He knew where Todd's envisioned house stood; he had been there before. The neighborhood was ideal for gangs wreaking havoc upon innocent bystanders. He had lived there for a time before Stryker found him again. He blended in there and it was no surprise that the opposing band of mutants could as well without any difficulties.

"You know, there's something I don't understand," said Sloan after a while. He was slightly out of breath from Todd's added weight. "Before, no one could get Meav to stay behind. She wanted to be included in everything. Then you come along, Victor and all you say is you promise to come back and she stays."

"Just a gift, I guess," said Victor. He couldn't help but feel pleased with himself.

"And you're just full of them," Taggs added.


	3. Chapter 3: Up in Flames

"I know this is like the ghetto and all, but frankly, that's one big-ass house," whispered Sloan.

"You sure that's the house, though?" asked Manson.

"Positive. Todd said a brown fence, green mailbox, and we're standing in front of a firehouse. This is the place. So what do we do now?" Sloan turned to Victor expectantly.

"Let's go in and say hi. Stash Todd in one of the rooms right inside and someone guard him so that we have an escape route. Manson, check the basement; Taggs, the middle floor. Slo and I'll take the upstairs. That leaves you with the babysitting duty, Darien. In and out, boys."

"What happens if we get to Black Hole before you?" asked Taggs.

"Kill him, I just want his ass dead and I don't give a damn who does it."

Boldly Victor strode up to the front door, breaking the gate as he went. He rapped on the wooden entrance and waited. Just inside he could hear footsteps and the door opened a couple of feet. Def stood there, horror on his face. Victor flashed him a death smile and slashed him across the chest. Sloan finished him off with a silenced shot to the head. Victor pelted towards the stairs on all fours, flattening Arachnid on the way up. The house came alive with screams as the five armed mutant sounded the alarm. Victor made swipes at anyone in his path but didn't stop to see if they were mortal blows. His only concern was Black Hole who he dodged in and out of rooms searching for, but he either missed him or was on the wrong floor. In less than four minutes of being in the house his nose picked up the scent of burning wood.

"Victor, Slo, get out! Fire!"

The mutants had set the house on fire on their way out. It had already spread to the staircase, blocking the exit. Victor smashed his elbow through the nearest glass widow and poked his head out. The roof slanted down and stopped right above the lawn. It was possible; they were only one story up…

Victor stuffed Sloan through the window. "Jump off the roof and roll when you hit the grass. Down you go!" He gave Sloan a small shove to get him moving and had stuck one leg out when he heard a pounding from the room beside him. He pulled his leg back in and knocked down the barrier that was the door.

"Is someone in here?"

"Help, I'm in the closet!"

Victor jerked the closet door off its hinges to discover a young man—late twenties to early thirties—with his curly brown hair plastered to his head in sweat. He was bound and blindfolded. His white freckled skin was layered with bruises of all unnatural colors. Dry blood caked his left cheek from a deep gash.

"Who is it? Who's there?"

Victor dragged the man to his feet and he swayed as his bound ankles pressed together. "Who are you?"

"Eli. Eli Rezick."

"What happened to you?"

"Mutants-they-they captured me. I was defending my girlfriend and they beat me. They were trying to make e help them fight off more mutants."

"Are you a mutant?"

"Yes-but I swear I wasn't going to help them. Just get me out of here, please," Eli begged.

"Hold on tight, kid."

Victor escorted Eli out of the room and unceremoniously crashed through the window with Eli hanging over his shoulder. He skidded down the crumbling roof and released the young mutant just before he made impact with the dead grass in the front yard. Taggs was shouting at him from the street.

"Todd's still inside!"

"_What?_ Who the hell left him?"

"Screw that, just go get him!"

Victor licked his lips nervously. He had never been tested in his mutant abilities against extreme heat. But no one else could get inside to where Todd was.

"_Shit!_" He tossed his coat over Eli, yelled, "Take care of him," to Sloan, and throwing up his arm, braved the flames. Trickles of fire licked at him and he felt the heat, but his skin didn't smolder or melt; it seemed that fire couldn't kill him either. He cursed at the sight of several support beams caving in at the entrance to where Darien had put Todd. He rammed his shoulder into the obstruction and shrapnel showered down on him. Shrugging off the debris he crawled forward on his stomach until his head hit Todd's arm. He grasped a fistful of Todd's t-shirt and dragged him mere feet before he realized that the chameleon wasn't immune to flames. Turning Todd the other way, he held him as if he were going to perform the Heimlich maneuver and carried the burden from the crumbling house.

Outside Sloan and Manson were throwing Eli into the back of a minivan. Darien was already inside but Taggs was attempting to contain the fire within an orb of shattered glass.

"Cops are coming, run Victor! I'll catch up!"

Victor tossed Todd into the seat next to Eli and clambered onto the roof. "Drive, Slo!"

Sloan shot the car forward up to the intersection, waiting for Taggs as police cars came at the house from all directions. Some mounted the curb and others knocked rows of mailboxes over. Policemen flooded out of each vehicle, screaming at Taggs who had only made it half a block from the crumbling house.

"Put your hands up and get on your knees! This is your only warning!"

Taggs placed his hands behind his head and lowered himself to one knee. He shook his head violently at Victor who had begun to rise up off of the roof of the minivan. Sloan pulled away and Taggs was lost from sight.

Victor climbed down once the van was far enough out of range from the scene. He leaned against Sloan's window. "Manson, please tell me you got him."

"Victor, I'm sorry. He must have been outside when we came in. Only one we got was Def and they carried him off."

"_Damn it!_"

At the sound of laughing Victor spun on Todd who had removed his blindfold and was smirking at him. "Told you, didn't I Creed? You have your way of finding us; but the chameleon works both ways." Victor's heart froze over in ice. They had found Meav and the others and were long gone by now. He felt a new, foreign sensation in his knees-weakness. He staggered and came down on them in front of a large maple tree. He bashed his head relentlessly against it, granting himself no mercy as he punished himself. It came as a shock that this hurt more than any other pain that had ever been inflicted upon him. If his blood could have been spilt it would be flowing down his forehead. This is how he would stay forever until someone pulled him away.

All too soon.

"Victor, no!" Sloan wrapped his arm around Victor's neck to restrain him. Victor grabbed Sloan's arm but didn't have the motivation to beat it away. Instead he simply hung on by the tips of his fingers, silent as Sloan held his shoulder. "You didn't do anything wrong, Victor. You can't beat yourself up over this. They'll just hold them for leverage; they won't kill them yet."

Victor smelt something hot and bitter with a tinge of copper. Only blood stunk like that. He pushed Sloan's arm away and pivoted on his knee to face him.

"Slo, what happened? What's wrong" he said slowly.

"Nothing, I'm fine."

From the minivan came Eli's voice. "He's lying. He's hurt."

Victor drew back Sloan's hand from where it rested on his hip to reveal a bloody wound. A further examination displayed green liquid squirting out from the jagged cuts.

"Nuke," said Sloan with an attempt of humor. "Oops."

The police cars filed after each other going down the opposite end of the street. The minivan swayed and Todd was after the police, shouting madly. His severed chains made music with every step he took. "Bastards, come back here!"

Victor propelled himself forward, his claws digging into the grass. He caught Todd around the shins before he had covered thirty feet. Todd fought back like a possessed man. "Gerroff me, lemme go!"

"You shout the hell up and stay down, chameleon! It's because of you that we're in deep shit! They've got Meav, did you know that? They found the mall. They know!"

Todd's pupils dilated. "No, that can'-that's not-I'd have seen them. They were heading for D.C., not Boston. They went the other way. The others are safe. She's safe."

"You're not screwing with me, are you?"

"Why would I if it involves Meav, you dumbass?"

Victor marched back the van and grabbed Eli. "You, what's your power?"

"I-I can locate anyone-anything within a twenty mile radius by my own radar. I can sense their physical appearances like clothes, bruises, sweat. Why?"

"Can you locate them? The mutants that caught you?"

Eli went still; his blindfold obscuring his eyes opened or close. "He's right; they're headed for D.C. Your friends are safe."

"You'd better be right, Rezick. Darien, get Camo Boy back in the van. Manson, you drive, fast. I'll get Slo. I don't know what the hell Nuke did to him but he's turning blue."

"What'll they do to Taggs?" asked Darien as he loaded Todd back in.

"He'll be fine. If things get messy he'll break out. There were too many humans for him to fight back. He'd either have gotten shot or else hurt one of the men. We'll worry about him later," Manson assured.

"And what about Slo? Do you think it's a fatal blow? C'mon, Manson, you worked with them, what does Nuke do?"

"I never saw him actually use his power, but he stabs people with his bare hand, he claims, and a poison spreads through them at a large rate similar to that of the same type of chemicals used to make nuclear weapons."

"How long do we have?" asked Victor trying to sound indifferent.

Manson glanced at Sloan in the rearview mirror. "Unless we can find a cure, not long enough."

Victor left the others to unload Todd and the still blindfolded Eli. He assisted Sloan inside, almost carrying him. He deposited him on several tables in the food court and swore at the sight of Sloan's skin shading purple.

"Victor?"

Meav had her arms around him in seconds. Her voice quivered.

"Honey, we've got a problem—several problems. Slo's been poisoned, Taggs was captured, Black Hole got away, and we found another mutant who they kidnapped," said Victor hastily. He could hardly contain his relief as she held him.

"Thanks for the help, Victor," said Manson, stumbling in with Eli who he had not seen fit to remove the blindfold from. "I want him to talk while we work on Slo. If his story's plausible then I'll take the blindfold off. Otherwise it stays on and he gets a boot kick to his ass and out he goes."

Manson turned his attention to Sloan on the table while Darien guided Eli into a chair. Eli panicked when his hands sensed the chair and he spun his head around wildly, assuming where the nearest person was. With is head facing several feet to Victor's left he asked in fright, "You aren't going to tie me up, are you? I didn't do anything wrong, I-"

"You're not in trouble, kid," said Victor over Eli. "We just want to hear your story."

Eli sank down low in the chair and Todd pulled up a seat next to him. "It's alright, Eli. You're safe now; we won' hurtchoo. Just tell us what happened. It's the only way we'll get any closer to those mutants that broughtchoo in."

Eli breathed shakily and folded his hands in his lap. "It must have been four nights ago," he began. "My girlfriend and I were in front of the Lincoln Memorial. I-I was going to propose to her when this big cloud of yellow gas crept up on us. I couldn't see her, hear her, or feel her. Something grabbed me and knocked me out. I woke up in the closet and the people said they were mutants. They said they knew what I could do, they knew I'm a mutant, and they told me with a bit of training I could be useful to them. They said they were recruiting more mutants for a fight against another group that had crossed their line. I said no and they beat me. They stuffed me back in the closet and told me that they'd have Fang check in on me. I was left there for about twelve hours before I sensed the fire and you guys came in after me."

"Fang?" Manson repeated. "Shit!"

"What? Who's the Fang?" asked Victor.

"Just Fang," Manson replied. "He's like you, an animal mutant. Fangs, claws, super strength, and speed, but he can also absorb a certain amount of power from other mutants. His eyes are cat-like-yellow and I'm not sure if he's indestructible, but he feeds on humans and he's been out of the country for a while. If he's back…"

"The others work for him?"

"It looks that way. Did they say anything else about Fang, Eli?"

"No, nothing."

Victor observed the color of Sloan's skin. "Manson, what's the verdict?"

Manson hardly shook his head, covering his hand with his mouth. Meav stifled a strangled sob and Darien collapsed in a chair with his face in his hands. Todd lowered his head to the table he shared with Eli and left it there.

"Look, I-I don't want to make this any harder, but I was wondering if any of you saw a girl with them?" Eli wondered aloud desperately. "About five foot five, blonde hair, she had a pale blue shirt and black pants. Her name is Shelby."

"Your girlfriend?" Victor guessed tonelessly. "I'm sorry, kid, I didn't see her."

"That means they probably killed her," Eli choked, trying and failing dismally to keep the emotion from this voice.

"Her power couldn't protect her?"

"She was a human. She knew I was a mutant and she still stayed with me. And they killed her!" Eli threw himself in the direction of what he hoped was the floor but hit another chair and sprawled on the gourd with a bleeding nose.

Victor gingerly placed his palm on Sloan's wound. When his friend held eye contact, his glowing gray diamond eyes pleaded for help.

"There's nothing we can do, Slo," said Victor brokenly. "There's no cure. I'm so sorry." And he meant it.

Sloan winked. "Glad I brought you along, eh?"

"Yeah," Victor agreed.

"It doesn't hurt anymore, y'know. I can't feel it."

Victor removed his hand…and gasped. The hole was gone. Sloan's skin was back to its tan color and he even sat up. Victor backed away hesitantly. He felt his hand tremble and a sense of being pricked by a million needles made him jerk slightly. As quickly as the feeling had come, it was gone.

'The hell'd you do, Victor?"

Victor stooped over and forced Eli to his feet. "Shut up and be a man! You could sense what just happened? Did you sense it? Tell me!"

Eli became silent at Victor's harsh words. "He just—healed. The wound sealed; that was it."

Victor ripped the blindfold away. Eli's eyes were milky white with a ghost of blue and they never once disappeared behind his eyelids.

"Are you blind, kid?"

"I'm not exactly sure. I see most things like anyone else would with a normal vision, but through my sensory. I can tell everything about a physical appearance by the radar, but there have been some things I can actually see through my eyes. I saw my dad and dog, but not my friends or teacher at school. I could see trees, not bushes. I saw Shelby and I can see you."

"How?" Victor inquired.

"I don't know. I see you clearly with these blind eyes but everyone else comes to me from radar. I can function just fine like a seeing person, though. I'm not disabled."

"What do I look like to you?"

"You exist in a world of white while everyone else is in full color."

Victor nodded his approval. "I think we should keep him, Manson."

The others agreed whole heartedly and introduced themselves individually. Victor shook hands last, taking great care not to nip Eli's colorless skin. "Victor Creed."

"And you're the one who came after me? Thank you," El wrung his hand with enormous gratitude.

"You've never heard of me?" asked Victor in surprise.

"No, should I have?"

"No one should have, but everyone around here has."

"I'm from Cleveland."

Meav steered the conversation towards Taggs, posing the question of how to spring him from the prison. Before Manson had a ready answer they heard a shrill cry from the back entrance to the food court. Chloe was transfixed, recounting the number of heads that had returned. She most likely saw the same number, but Eli, a stranger, had replaced Taggs.

"Where is he?" she demanded.

"Now, Chloe, take it easy," said Darien. Victor couldn't' understand why Darien was speaking to her as if she were about to explode. "He was trying to control the house that set on fire and the police took him in. They don't' know that he's a mutant. But he's okay."

"_You!_" Chloe pointed at Victor. "He followed you! It's your fault!"

"Oh, crap," Darien muttered. He made a mad dash for the Panda Express counter and flung himself over it for cover. Todd and Meav came down on top of him. Eli wheeled in Chloe's direction.

"What's happening? Why is everyone running?"

A moment later it became very apparent why. Chloe's hair caught in a ferocious wind and an unbearable light burst from her small figure. Victor cast his hands up to block the brightness. The skin on his palms burnt and healed in a continuous process. What was the light doing to Eli, though? The kid hadn't moved.

"Eli?"

"Behind the table!" answered the young mutant. "She's burning right through it; you have to make her stop!"

"Meav, get her!"

"I can't, her power's blocking me out!"

Eli sounded hysterical now. "There's almost no table left, Victor! Do something!"

Victor let his frustration show. "Do I have to do _everything_?" This almost seemed impossible. His eyes would burn out if he opened them to find Chloe, so how the hell was he supposed to stop her?

"Eli, where is she?"

"Straight ahead!"

He took off, laying chairs and tables flat with his speed. He dared not expose his eyes to the light but could sense Chloe just a few feet from him. He had to time this perfectly so that he wouldn't hurt her. His arms knocked Chloe's legs out from under her and the light extinguished instantly. Victor pinned her arms to the side of her head. "Calm down!"

"Get off of me you bastard!"

"Nothing happened to Taggs! Just stay still, damn it!"

Chloe shrieked in protest.

"Shut-_up_!" Victor's voice rattled the rafters. The octave echoed on all walls. "You almost killed that kid over there! Have you lost your mind? You're being an ass now shut the hell up!"

"Victor!"

Bredan bounded into the food court with an enraged expression. His hand jumped to his gun. Of course, this scene would look bad to him; Victor poised over Chloe as if he were about to perform an act of rape.

"NO! Don't you fire that pistol, Bredan!" Sloan bellowed.

Darien went into action and commanded time to halt. Victor was forced to wait in his crouched position above Chloe while Darien hurried over to Bredan to disarm him. He set time back in motion and Bredan made a grab for his weapon.

"She exploded on us. Victor stopped her. Do you honestly think he'd try to rape her in front of us? Pull your head out of your ass, you idiot."

"Why'd she explode? Where's Taggs? Who's the kid?"

Victor stepped away from Chloe. "I'll leave the explaining to you because I'm not doing it again. I don't want another Harley sibling going nuts on me."


	4. Chapter 4: An Exception

Todd slurped his Jell-O noisily. He tipped slightly back in his chair, eyeing Victor apprehensively across the combined four tables. Victor allowed Meav to sit by Todd with the promise that he would have Todd screaming for mercy the moment he showed signs of aggression towards her. Victor was thoroughly enjoying himself as he continued to watch Todd. The chameleon spared Victor an all-knowing look that came close to the look he wore when Black Hole had control of his body.

"I don' like jus' sittin' here on my ass waitin' for somethin' to happen, or rather, watchin' you lot look at me like I'm gonna explode. May I remind you that it was Chloe who blew up half the damn food court? And _you_, stop _looking_ at me like that, it's creepy."

Victor crushed his tea cup to taunt him.

Todd easily gave up the staring contest and consulted Manson. "Would you please get him to stop that? It's pissin' me off."

Manson shrugged, delving into his can of carrots and corn. "He can sense it earlier and easier than us if you go psycho on Meav. Just ignore him."

Scoffing, Todd pushed himself back from the table. "How would you be able to ignore _that_? Look at 'is face! That's a death glare, that is. If looks could kill I'd be dead. He's jus' sittin' there all calm but he's waitin' for me to pop. Now lookit here, he's workin' me up on 'is own. If I blow my top it's 'is fault."

"Victor, that's enough," said Sloan. "You're endangering her yourself by taunting him. Lay off the possessed eyes."

Victor chucked the crushed cup pieces into the waste bin and leaned sideways against a pillar. "So, when do we go get Taggs? Tonight's good for me," he said matter-of-factly.

"We could probably do it tonight," said Manson. "We'd just need a diversion; you could probably do that Victor. Of course Slo and Darien will be there. Grant, you should probably come. Chloe, we're only aiming to knock policemen out here, not cook them, so you'll stay with Todd, Meav, and Penn."

There was an angry uproar from Todd, Meav, and Chloe all at once.

"It's 'cuz I'm a soda can waitin' to blow, innet?"

"I had to sit out the last one!"

"Callum is _my_ boyfriend!"

Manson attempted to restore order among them but his voice was lost in their rebellious remarks. Victor drew in a deep breath and let loose an unbelievable roar. The effect was incredible; instant silence.

"I've actually got a few questions and comments myself," he said, unable to keep a straight face at the look of awe and fascinated horror on their faces. "One, why does Penn never participate in these outings? Two, can't Meav, Chloe, and Camo Boy be useful even if it's not using their powers? Three, won't the police get a good look at our face and hunt us down? If the other mutants pick up on our faces we're in for some deep trouble. And four, wouldn't this be so much simpler if Darien went in on his own? You know, freeze everyone, grab Taggs, and come back?"

"I can only stop time for up to two minutes," Darien explained. "It sucks. Here I am, probably the only one of my kind with a power that almost every kid on earth wants or has wanted and it all comes to a grand total of two minutes every hour. Talk about jank."

"And there's a possibility that the cops _will_ pick up on our descriptions, so the less people, the better. If it were against other mutants like the other night on the street, I'd say yes, but Chloe is an inexperienced fighter, Meav has had enough trauma for a while, Todd might not be up for this and may jump ship if Black Hole finds an opening, and Penn is a fish out of water, literally. He can only use his power in water."

Penn straightened up in his chair, dripping. "Jank," he said.

"Why does Grant get to come, then?"

"So that we can locate Taggs and everyone else in the building."

"Couldn't we use the kid for that?"

Eli bowed his head, embarrassed.

"He's not trained," Manson disagreed. "He'd slow us down-"

"Actually," Eli interrupted, "only by the other mutant's standards am I not trained. I wasn't hateful enough for them. They wanted to turn me into a beast. I'm actually very experienced in combat, as is any mutant who's fended for himself for more than a year. I can help."

"And why is it that you, Slo, Taggs, and Darien always head up the outings? Oh, wait, let me guess, you're the best fighters with the best defensive and offensive powers? But tell me, how many of you are immortal? No one? That's what I thought. Look, mutants have stronger senses than humans but eventually our luck wears out. Before I knew I was immortal I pressed my luck too far. It's not worth taking the chance."

"We're prepared for the worst, Victor," Sloan reminded him.

"But you should conserve individual energy. I don't need Darien for this, or Manson, or you, Slo. I _do_ need the kid. Besides that I can get in, grab Taggs, and get out and they'll only have me on their mind."

"No way in hell you're leaving me. It's not that I doubt your self control to not slaughter them, but it'll be damn near impossible for you to get out of there on your own without injuring someone and our type of mutant doesn't harm humans if we can help it. I'm coming," said Sloan in a final sort of way. "And Manson is as equal to any of us as you are, but we've always looked up to him. He took us in and he goes everywhere."

"I'll stay, but only because Manson says so, not you Victor," Darien said. "No offense, but it's like Slo said, we look up to him."

"He's right," said Manson. "The less number of people who go, the easier it'll be for us. Darien, we won't need you. We'll just take Slo and Eli."

"And Meav," said Victor a little harder than he meant. "She can stay out of sight and not participate, but I'm not leaving her here with _him_."

"Do I sense some intimate feelings, Vike?" Todd asked slyly.

Victor flashed his teeth. "No, you sense protection against the chameleon with his annoying head up his ass. Back off."

"You," Manson pointed to Todd, "out."

"I see how it is, he's replaced me, hasn' he? I'm the villain now, am I? Screw the lot of you!" Todd stormed from the room and he did not go quietly. They heard him banging on the walls as he retreated to his room.

"Do you think I'm going to leave her here with _that_? He'd ambush her, tell her off for talking to me, and then jump her again. Either she comes with us or you all stay here and guard her from him."

"Victor," Meav protested, "I'll be-"

"No, you won't. I can see it in your face; you're afraid. If you come with me nothing will happen to you. I promise."

"Manson?" Meav unfairly used her pleading look on Manson who was powerless to it. He nodded and Meav thanked him with a swift kiss to the cheek.

"Will you stop looking back like that, Victor? You're making me nervous," Sloan complained under cover of darkness in front of the county jail where Taggs was being held.

"I just want to make sure she's still there," said Victor distractedly, craning his head over the bushes yet again.

"She's not going to run off on you, mate. Let's keep our focus on the job, yeah? Manson's going to contact Taggs in a minute to tell him we're here and Eli will locate him, and then we need your attention on something that's not Meav, okay?"

"I don't like leaving her exposed like that-"

"Exposed how? She's in the bleeding HUM-V, isn't she? If it's got you this paranoid, why'd you bring her along? Besides, Eli will get back to her as soon as he's done here."

Eli stood erect, motionless. "He's on the second floor in the north wing. Cell 15. He's under the list of transfers to state prison, so he hasn't changed into inmate attire yet. Ten guards total, five in the cell room and the others are scattered. Nearest entrance is the bathroom window, which is barred. But that shouldn't be a problem, should it?"

"I can get that," Victor said impatiently.

"Well, I guess I'm done here. I'll go back to the car."

"You watch her, kid."

"That's ironic, isn't it?" said Eli sharply.

"Sorry, I meant-you know what I meant. It's what everyone says; 'watch this person' or 'keep an eye on this person'. No one ever says 'use your radar to locate this person and keep them close'."

"I see your point. I'll wait in the car, like I said."

Once Eli was out of hearing distance Sloan clicked his tongue reprovingly at Victor. "You could have been a little nicer, y'know."

"I saved his ass; I'm not the one that needs to have good manners, Slo."

"Shut up, you two," Manson hissed. "I'm calling Taggs now." He pinched a glass shard between his thumb and index finger. "Taggs, we're here. We're coming in through the bathroom window. Get ready to move fast. I've got Slo and Victor. Slo will come get you and Victor and I'll shield you. Meav is waiting in a HUM-V across the street. You got all that?"

The shard vibrated between Manson's fingers. "That's a yes. Let's do it, boys."

They stole across the street and hid under cover of the bushed outlining the compound. Victor detected a camera scanning the bathroom window to the north wing. He nudged Sloan in the ribs and nodded at the camera. "Take it out," he whispered.

Sloan's left hand mutated into a silenced pistol and he shot the lens clean off of the camera with a neat, well-aimed bullet. He followed Manson across the lawn to crouch underneath the window one story up. He measured the distance and said quietly, "How exactly did you plan on getting up there?"

Victor retraced his last few steps, then took a running leap and sprinted up the wall on all fours. He latched himself onto one of the window bars and planted his feet against the wall above and below. Using his legs as the main force he tugged at the two inner bars until they popped out in a less-than-quiet manner. There was just enough room for them to squeeze through into the bathroom. He stuck his claws deep into the wall and slid down to where Sloan and Manson waited for him.

"Going up?" He pitched Sloan and Manson up into the air with his hands and they caught the bars, legs dangling. Victor wriggled himself through the bars and dragged the other two in behind him. They dropped to the floor with a loud _thud_.

"I'll bet someone heard that. Quick, hide in the stalls," said Victor. He pressed himself against the wall behind the door while Sloan and Manson darted into the toilet stalls. Just outside he heard footsteps and the door swung open, barely missing him.

A squat, bearded guard entered, twirling his bat. He bent double to check under the stalls for evidence of an intruder. Tilting his head up, he caught sight of the window. Victor snuck up behind him and knocked his head into the sink. He caught the guard, lowered him down, and hid him in the unoccupied stall.

"You can come out now."

There came a splash from one stall and Sloan and Manson each appeared from a separate one. Manson opened the guard's stall door. "You didn't kill him, did you?"

"No, he's just knocked out. The hell happened to you, Slo?"

Sloan grimaced, glancing down at his sopping pant leg. "Slipped, fell in. Who knows what sort of crap has gone in that toilet?"

Victor stifled a chuckle. "Well, you're up now. We'll be on your tail." He pushed open the door, and ducked back inside, swearing. "There's no way we're getting through that unnoticed."

Manson kneaded his temples, thinking to himself. "You can see in the dark, can't you, Victor?"

"Yeah, why?"

"If I can switch the lights off, would you be able to get to Taggs's cell and bust him out?"

"Probably."

"Then that's what we'll do. Give me a leg up to that main power line up there and I'll cut it. The lights go off, you go out, and we'll wait here."

Victor lifted Manson up by his legs to a stretch of power cords. Manson wrapped a strip of his shirt over his hand to protect it from electric shock. He reached up and yanked the cords out. The lights above them flickered and died. Victor lowered him to the floor in complete darkness to the sound of guards shouting.

"I'll be right back." He burst through the door, pounding along the second floor while reading the code above each cell as he went. 23, 22, 21…

He skidded to a halt before cell 15 and rapped on the bars. "Taggs, it's Victor. Stand back from the door." He gave an almighty tug and the entire cell door came flying off of its hinges. "Get to the bathroom, I'll cover you."

Taggs hardly made any sound, gliding as he ran and ignoring the pleas of other inmates to his right. Victor stomped on the caged floor to distract the guards, but hurried after Taggs the moment their flashlights fell on his former location.

It was all done in a few tense seconds.

Back into the bathroom, through the window, across the lawn, onto the street, and into the awaiting HUM-V they went. Eli made room for Taggs in the far back seat, Sloan and Manson took the middle, and Victor accompanied Meav in the front who inconspicuously drove onward as soon as Victor had planted himself in the seat beside her. "How did it go?" she asked.

"Smooth, for the most part," he answered.

"I'd been waiting long enough as it was. What took you guys so damn long? Did you get lost?" called Taggs from the far back.

"Shut up," Victor replied

The reunion between Taggs and Chloe had been nothing short of embarrassing. Though Taggs didn't go beyond holding Chloe in a tight embrace, she smothered him. For the remainder of the night she refused to let go of him. Victor didn't stay long in the food court to spare himself the sight. He left Sloan and Manson to give a full recount of the night's events. Preferring to catch up on a few hours of lost sleep. The soft, cushiony touch of the mattress and blankets was refreshing to his war-torn body. His eyes drooped sleepily…

"Victor, are you awake?"

He rolled over, suddenly alert. "For you I am."

Meav stood in the doorway, wringing her hands. Victor beckoned her to him and he sat up to allow her space on the mattress. As he had before, he slung an arm around her shoulder and she nestled her cold body in close to his warm one.

"You alright?" he asked tenderly.

"Victor, if Fang starts a war-"

"He will."

"Will you stay?" It seemed that her life depended on his answer. "You promised that you'd stick around, but we didn't have a war on our hands then. Will you stay with m-us?"

He caught the slip in her words but decided not to call her on it. Instead he tightened his hand around her. "I'm involved now; I have to stay. Is that what's been worrying you?"

Meav nodded. "Our group is too small. And the others are more lethal, plus they're recruiting and they have Fang. We have you, but sending you in against all of them is suicide."

"What about Slo and Taggs?"

"They're only two, mutants, Victor. We need more to help if we stand any chance of getting through this and-"

"Honey, calm down. It'll be okay. Don't think about that kind of stuff right now, okay?" He clasped one of her hands, rubbing his thumb gently over her skin. "Why are you always so cold?"

"Cold hands mean a warm heart," Meav quoted.

"Then what do warm hands mean?" asked Victor. "A cold heart?" Meav shifted uncomfortably. Victor pressed his lips to the top of her head. "I think I can make some changes to that."

Her hand on his chest rose with his breathing. "I can feel your heart; it's really strong. I think you _are_ an exception."

"I always am."

Meav sighed and dragged one of Victor's blankets over her. For a while neither of them spoke, sitting in the dim light. Victor enjoyed the coldness emitting from her. It was such a blessing after the heat of a century of battles and she seemed to find his body warmth just as enjoyable.

"Meav?"

"Mmm" she answered sleepily.

"I'm going to take you outside in the morning. You've been cooped up for too long and deserve some fresh air. Is that alright with you? Feel up to it?"

He could almost feel her heart leap at his words. "I'll take that as a yes."


	5. Chapter 5: A Century's Nature

The blush on her face when she awoke the next morning was implanted in Victor's mind. He must have fallen asleep around the same time as she had, for he hadn't bothered to move her and she sat up rather sheepishly at first light. But now that they were taking a leisurely stroll around the docks, she seemed completely at ease despite the fact that the few people who passed them stared avidly at Victor. It hardly bothered him; he had lived with this sort of prejudice his entire life. Besides, his attention was caught on the sound of Taggs and Penn following one block behind them. Now, exactly why they were following was the real question. Either someone had been listening in on them or they had spotted them leaving the mall that morning.

Meav brought him to a stop near a construction site piled high with barrels of oil and gasoline. She threw the workers a dirty scowl when they whistled to her. 'This is what drains my powers; a smell that kills. They're going to pour all of that into the ocean, which will make the sea even more dangerous for mutants. Sometimes we can only escape to the ocean and if it's intoxicated-"

"We're screwed either way," Victor finished for her.

"Hey, sweet thang, bring yourself over here!" a worker cat-called at Meav.

She took Victor's hand instantly. "Ignore them. They can see I'm with you."

"They're trying _not_ to look at me; that's new. I'm watching their faces and they're just itching to get their hands on you. Stick close when we walk by, okay? Don't let go of my hand."

Victor hid his unoccupied claw in his coat pocket. He was tempted to hug Meav's waist to him, but he needed to be able to free his hand quickly in case the men attacked. Several of them hooted at Meav and made loud kissing noises. Victor held his breath; aware of his hand shaking so much in Meav's that he made her entire arm vibrate. They had cleared the site when one worker hollered at them.

"I wanna get in your pants, babe!"

Victor wrenched his hand free of Meav's and snarled at the culprit. He wouldn't be surprised if steam had come off of his face. "Say that again," he challenged. "I dare you."

"No, Victor, let him go. He's probably drunk, just leave it alone." Meav tugged at his sleeve urgently. "Please, let's just go."

"Or have you already been in her pants, Creed?"

_Creed?_

Victor scanned the sea of faces, but his eyes only noticed one; familiar, horribly familiar. Tri-Star pounded his fists onto the ground, setting fire to a line of gasoline. In seconds it had surrounded Victor and Meav within the circle, enclosing them with the workers who all had either dropped dead, slain by others, or who had shunned their clothes to reveal their mutant ones. It looked like Fang had taken the recruiting business seriously.

"I guess we'll never know. Let's see how well you fair against explosions." Tri-Star tapped several oil drums over in their direction."

"Victor, the water!" Taggs and Penn were already running for the open sea.

"Hold onto me, Meav!"

"I can't swim, Victor," Meav said, horrified.

"I'll swim for you, trust me."

Meav held him in a fully body embrace. He flung himself backwards, over the fire and down into the dark blue. The water shook with the force of the explosions above, blackening out the sky. Victor felt Meav struggle within moments from lack of air. He pried her arms away, grabbed her face, and pressed his mouth to hers. He breathed into her, lengthening her supply of oxygen, but it was imperative that he take extreme care to not nip her with his fangs. She clung to his shirt, placing her life in his hands.

Through the water ripples he sensed something massive moving directly at them. He pulled Meav in close so that his arms were free and he could see around her head. He blinked. Perhaps smaller, but only by a margin, came a Lochness monster. Someone had their arms hooked to a collar on its neck. Taggs…which meant that the monster had to be Penn. He dived under Victor and swam in place, waiting for him to grab hold. Victor coiled his arm around Penn's collar and Penn shot like a torpedo through the water, out to sea. Victor kept his mouth on Meav's but noticed how Taggs was turning a deeper shade than the water. He dug his heel into Penn's neck and they surfaced, rocketing up towards the open, clear sky. Penn remained in monster form so that the others wouldn't have to bob in the water.

Taggs spat out a fountain of salt water and Victor broke apart from Meav to thump him on the back. "Thanks," Taggs choked.

"Why the hell were you following us?"

Taggs ran his hand over his eyes. "Manson said that the other mutants would be waiting to spring a trap and he sent us to watch your—you're not buying this at all are you?" Victor shook his head. "Okay, fine, we saw you leaving and backed you up just in case you needed us, which you did. It was an ambush. They knew you'd be coming by. Did you say anything about where you were going to Todd? Did he see you leave?"

"No, Todd's been sober since yesterday afternoon. I don't know how they found out. We left breakfast together, but only Slo and the kid were…the kid…"

"Eli," Taggs breathed. "That squealing little son of a bitch, I'll kill him! Turn around Penn, take us back!"

Penn gave Taggs a reproachful look.

"Now!"

A cold, harsh wind picked up as Penn doubled back. Drenched and unbelievably furious, Victor averted all contact with Meav. He didn't' want her telling him that he should stay out of the situation. Eli was a traitor and Victor had had more than enough experience with traitors.

"Victor, slow down! Come back here!" Meav's beseeching cries followed him to the entrance of the mall.

"You stay out of this! I'm going to rip his damn arms off and stuff the down his throat and you are going to stay out of my way!"

Victor and Tags raced through the broken window to Sears with Meav's shouts of "Assholes!" ringing in their ears. Victor stayed one leap ahead of Taggs, causing the tiled floor beneath them to shake. He crashed into the food court, located Eli at a table with Sloan, and pounced. His hands closed around a throat, his teeth ripped into the shoulder skin, grazing bone. He had almost secured a hold on the shoulder blade when Manson's fist swung upwards into his nose, knocking him ten feet back into a pillar. The force shattered the concrete base and hundreds of pounds of debris hailed down on him. Eyes alight with exploding flame, he arose from the pile of destruction and stretched his arms out behind him to puff out his chest. Blood was his vision and his only need.

Arms caught his neck, holding on for dear life. He reached around his back and hurtled the rider across the room. Wildly, he searched about for Eli and found him at the back of a defensive line held by the others. Manson headed the line, flanked by Taggs, Darien, and Bredan on the right and Meav, Grant, Chloe, and Penn on the left.

Victor's lip curled up wickedly. He lunged.

Taggs had him pinned to one of the still standing pillars with glass piercing his callused skin. He back head-butted the pillar and howled. The blood slowly died out, his sense returned, and his head dropped onto his chest wearily. Taggs gradually extracted the glass from Victor's body. Dropping to his knees, Victor passed guiltily from face to face. He ran a claw up through his hair. "Let me guess, it wasn't Eli?" he said to Taggs.

"No, they must have heard some other way. But you failed to hear that, didn't you? You broke Todd's leg, Victor. He tried to stop you."

Victor could have cared less about Todd. He couldn't help but notice how Taggs hadn't yet mentioned Sloan. "And Slo?" He didn't think he wanted to hear the answer to this. If it hadn't been Eli whose blood he had tasted…

"You tell me." Sloan supported himself on the upturned table, holding what remained of his shirt to the rip on his shoulder. It was obvious now; he had jumped in the way to protect Eli. His face was screwed up in pain. An emotion that Victor had never seen directed towards him before from Sloan was present in his face.

"Y'know, I lied," Sloan muttered darkly. "There _is_ something about you that scares me. You couldn't stop, could you? You wanted to kill, to keep going. It felt good, didn't' it? You couldn't hear us shouting at you to stop because your animal instinct took over. But I guess that's what you are, yeah? An animal."

Victor didn't have a response.

"Isn't that right Victor Creed?"

If this was what guilt felt like, Victor hated it.

"_Isn't it?_"

"Yeah, I guess that's right."

"You _guess_?"

"I know that's right," Victor corrected himself.

Sloan's eyes shifted towards the exit. "You know what I think?"

"It's time for me to leave."

A strangled sob escaped Meav but Victor ignored it. He thought he saw the smallest hint of regret in Sloan's pupils, but a second later he knew he had only imagined it.

"Yeah, I guess that's right," Sloan spat.

Victor straightened his collar, turned, and walked away. He had tried-tried to make life work for him, tried to make _a_ life, but as always, because of what he was, he couldn't have what he wanted. And how ironic was it that he person who had found him, accepted him, was the one sending him packing? He could have laughed, but the thought of leaving Sloan, Taggs, Manson, and Meav was enough to never make him laugh again. As much as he hated to admit it, he had formed a bond, almost enough to be called a family bond. And as suddenly as it had come to be, it was over.

They were all like Todd now; they needed him, but didn't want him. How could they win against Fang now? Who would protect Meav from Todd? From everything? She'd die; she'd be raped and then killed. This was enough to bring Victor to a dead halt.

Luckily, Manson spoke at the same time. "You can't do that, Slo. We need Victor and what if Fang gets a hold of him? You brought him in and now he stays."

"You saw what he did!" Sloan exclaimed.

Meav raised her voice over him. "If he had attacked anyone but you you'd be defending him. What I saw was his own Black Hole taking over. It's just like Todd; he can't control it. But he didn't want to and if you'd send him back out on his own for something that he was born with but never wanted then your head is way up your ass. I'm going with him, whatever happens. He needs us just the same to help him keep hold on the human in him. Wasn't that your goal from the beginning? Or do you just drop everything at the first sign of doubt? Are you a hypocrite, Sloan?"

"No, but-"

"Then _what_ is your problem?"

The answer sounded pained, but Victor refused to look over his shoulder to see what emotion Sloan face portrayed. "I don't care if he hurt me. If he had chomped my entire shoulder off, I would have dusted myself off and kept going. But he was aiming for Eli and he broke Todd's leg when he was acting on impulse from what happened at the docks. For all the right reasons all of the wrong things happened. Even when he was acting on our behalf he still attacked us. I was an idiot not to see it from the night at the bar, but there's just no controlling that fury in him. You're the only one who can calm him, Meav. But if you had been in the way when he twisted on us you might be dead. I want him to change just as much as you do, but that's just not going to happen. He was born over a century ago and he'll keep living, but the rest of us don't have that sort of time. It'll take another century to break his habits. It's just not possible."

"Well, then we won't change him," Meav said determinedly. "But let him stay, please."

"I always wanted him to stay, but I had to make it sound like he wasn't wanted here so that he'd take me seriously."

"Why'd you throw him out, then?"

"I didn't want _him_ to get hurt. You saw the look on his face when he saw what he did to me. If that had been you-if he had gone after you- he'd have destroyed himself. I wanted him to leave before anything worse happened."

"You stupid bastard. He trusted you-"

"There's no reason why he shouldn't still."

"You just gave him a boot out the door, you moron!"

Victor decided now was a good time to intervene. "You know, I'm still standing right here." He staggered back a few paces when Meav rushed to him and flung her arms around him.

"Please don't leave, Victor. We can make it work, we will. Just stay with me…with me, like you promised."

"I'm not going anywhere, honey. But _you_…" Victor steered Meav sideways to get a full view of Sloan. "Tell me exactly how this is going down and you'd better tell me the truth because I'll know if you're lying."

Sloan took a deep breath and motioned to the food court as a whole. "We want you to stay."

"So throwing me out was you trying to protect me?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"You _guess_?"

"That's not even funny, Victor."

"That's not an answer."

"Yeah, I was protecting you, happy?"

Victor snorted. "I'll be damned. You all are the mortal ones and you're trying to protect _me_." Meav rested her head against his shoulder and the scars of battle washed away.

It was hardly a week later that Taggs caused havoc at breakfast when he exclaimed that Tri-Star and Nuke were boarding a plane to Cuba. Manson selected Victor, Sloan, Taggs, and Bredan for the follow up mission. They were to steal a jet and tail the others until they were close enough to shoot them down at an extremely high altitude. Chloe had actually thrown her cereal at Manson when he announced this. Meav helped him clean Cheerios off of his clothes while Taggs comforted Chloe.

"C'mon now, baby. We've gone out four times because of this group and we're still in one piece. You really need to stop throwing these tantrums, alright? You'll get your chance soon. But for now just wait for me, okay? When I get back I'm going to see if you can answer a question for me."

Taggs kissed her swiftly on the lips and departed. Victor stroked Meav's usual cold skin. "Will you be okay?"

"I guess I'll have to be, won't I?"

"Stick with Darien as much as you can. I wouldn't say no to Eli or Chloe either. But just-stay safe, for me. You know it'll screw me up the whole time I'm up there if you don't. Keep contact with Taggs for as long as you can. And—um, damn, that's all I've got."

"That's plenty. Now you do the same."

"You're not going to make me promise, are you?" Victor pretended to whine. Meav surprised him with a cool kiss to his cheek. A sudden image of desire and fantasy flashed before his eyes and he had the urge to return the gift, but settled for a simple bump of his jaw to the top of her head.


	6. Chapter 6: First Glimpse

"I didn't know you could fly, Bredan," Victor claimed in surprise when they had taken to the skies smoothly. Bredan controlled the yoke with complete ease and laughed aloud.

"I had to have some kinda job before this mutant business, right?"

"They actually let you have a job?" asked Victor incredously.

"Well, yeah. We blend in, don't we?" Manson indicated himself, Sloan, Taggs, and Manson. "We only got together four years ago and everyone was on their own then. That was the lowest part of our lives. See, it started with just me, then I gradually picked up the others."

"Did they come to you?" Victor was curious about this; about how mutants located one another without the help of crazed anti-mutant operations.

"We found Darien and Penn but everyone else found us," Manson explained. "Word got out and we found mutants flocking to us. Bredan and Chloe were first."

"Chloe and I both had low paying jobs and we noticed that our bosses had been keeping a paranormal eye on us. We decided to ignore it until one day Chloe's boss had her tailed and the sick bastard interpreted that as 'get rid of her'. I heard her screaming a block away from the house and I rushed over and broke the guy's neck. We packed and ran that night and we passed a group of teenagers on the street that were going on about 'a mutant roaming the alleys at night over by that abandoned mall', so we did a little poking around and found Manson. Life's been great since then," Bredan said happily, tilting the plane out of boredom.

"I came about two and a half months after them," said Sloan. "I'd always served as a weapons technician since I stopped ageing, but I'd also been hanging around some Class 2 mutants that were looking for higher classified ones to watch their back. That was around the time that Stryker had you looking for mutants." Sloan gave Victor an apologetic glance. "Bredan had been checking the group to see if anyone was interested in Manson's offer and I followed him back to the mall one day without him knowing-"

"Scared the crap outta me-"

"And they took me in," Sloan finished.

"Todd was a little more complicated to get to. We had heard on bar televisions that an inmate at the downtown prison had been in numerous fights and scuffles to the point where he had broken several limbs. For everyone else's protection the guards isolated him but when they went back to check in on him he had gone. They raised the alarm and fetched about ten more guards to examine the cell for any signs of escape. They walked back in the cell and there he was, reading all casual-like as if nothing had happened. They questioned him, but he wasn't about to tell them because he'd just had the shit scared out of him when he disappeared. It was only then that he discovered his power and he had no idea how to use the. We had a pretty good idea what was wrong with him and I sent Slo to talk to him and explain his powers to him. Slo instructed him on how to use them to escape, which he did easily, just slipped past security by crawling along the wall. Then he came to us. And funny enough, he encouraged Meav to come too."

Interested, Victor leaned over onto his knees, waiting for Manson to continue.

"She didn't trust anyone. She's never talked much about it, even though she's comfortable around us all now. Chloe got the most out of her and I got a bit. See, she had an older sister who wasn't a mutant that her mother and stepfather absolutely adored. They found out that Meav was a mutant when she was about five years old and that's around the time her biological dad died. Her stepdad beat her when her mom broke the news to him. Meav didn't know how to control her powers when they reacted to her being beat. She killed him-and ran. From there she drifted from one shelter to homeless shelter, curling up inside a store bathroom at night when no one was watching and leaving early the next day. Anyone that tried to hurt her she just knocked out. Since she trusted no one, we found it odd that Todd persuaded her so easily. Then you show up and she just takes a liking to you like she never did to us. I've never seen her warm up to anyone that quickly."

Victor's claws unclenched from his armrest at these last words. He had hardly noticed that he had slowly been ripping the armrests in half due to his anger at Meav's stepfather's brutality. He felt no sympathy for the man; if _he_ had been there when the bastard beat Meav there would be no identifiable body left to claim as dead.

"Grant's story is simple," Sloan continued, wary of Victor's sparked anger. "We met him in passing without knowing what he was and it must have been two or three days later that he showed up. He'd been on his own for a while since his grandmother died of cancer. She took care of him until he was eighteen and then he took up a job, but he lived with her still when he found out about her illness. He was almost fifty when she died at the age of one hundred and sixteen. The doctors gave her eight months and she lasted over thirty years. Pretty damn impressive."

"Then there's me," said Taggs, twirling a piece of glass in between his fingers. "I come from a long history of mutants. Only child with two mutant parents, life was good. But they were wiped out my anti-mutant protestors when I was nine so I invited myself into numerous covens and crap, always drifting. At first when I met Slo and Todd I figured that they were just like all the other mutants; ruthless, cruel, aggressive, so I didn't' plan on staying around for long, maybe a month or two. But I met Chloe and she persuaded me to stay, so here I am."

"Persuaded how?"

"She asked me, I said yes," Taggs answered simply. "And when she's not a rampaging light burst she's pretty defenseless, so someone had to protect her when Bredan wasn't around, right?"

"And you were okay with that, Bredan?" Victor said surprised, watching Bredan in the pilot's seat.

"Course I was. Taggs is pure and honest, something that's really rare in a mutant. And unlike every other relationship nowadays, Taggs and Chloe's is steady. They've never slept together or anything."

"As far as you know," Taggs added.

Bredan jerked the plane wildly and Taggs burst out in evil laughter. "I'm joking, man. C'mon, you know you trust me. If we had Chloe wouldn't even be able to look you in the eye. I promise, nothing's happened."

"Don't _do_ that, you moron. It's been a few years since I flew so I don't think it's a good idea to be messing with….what the hell is _that?_"

"What, Bredan?" Manson said instantly.

"I'm picking up something on radar."

"Another plane?"

"No, but it's big and it's loaded with people."

Victor unbuckled himself and leaned over Bredan's shoulder to watch the radar screen. "Not people," he said darkly. "Mutants. Hold onto something!"

The words hadn't even fully escaped his mouth when a missile crashed into them on the left wing. Bredan struggled to keep the plane steady. Victor and the other were tossed about in the cabin from wall to wall.

"Damn it, I can't hold her Manson! I can't hold her!"

"Get those parachutes and life jackets on!" Victor ordered. 'They're either going to blow us up or we'll crash and you four won't survive either encounter. Hold her up for a minute more, Bredan!"

Sloan, Manson, and Taggs slipped into parachute packs and secured life vest to them.

"Bredan, where are we?"

"Off the coast of the Carolinas, about fifteen miles out. We're right over water. Someone needs to take the controls because I don't have my vest on yet-oh, shit!"

Something heavy landed on the nose of the plane. Victor looked out into the dying light for the disturbance. Suddenly two bright gleaming eyes yellow in color appeared directly outside the window.

"Fang," Manson breathed.

A fist came hurtling through the window to grab Bredan's throat. Bredan vanished in a wisp of fog and the plane tilted into a crashing position. Victor clawed at the mutant, seized the yoke, and drove it forcibly to the left. "Taggs, the window!"

Taggs resealed the shattered glass but pressed himself to it to see if the plane still hosted the unwelcome passenger. "He's still hanging on, Victor!"

Sloan shot the emergency door handle off and tore it open, ready for the jump. Manson and Bredan crouched ready behind him. Sloan's voice turned panicky. "Victor, you don't have a parachute!"

"Don't need one, go!"

Manson kneed Sloan in the back and he was lost from sight.

"Victor," said Taggs in horror, "they're about to shoot…"

In three swift movements Victor released the yolk, grabbed Taggs, and curled into a ball as a reign of fire descended upon them. The black jump suit Victor had exchanged for his trench coat shriveled under the heat of the explosion. The plane disintegrated around him and the cold wind stung his face as he came into free fall. Though shielded from the explosion, Taggs had been knocked unconscious and the two plummeted to earth, helpless to operate the chute.

Victor viciously yanked the cord and the parachute opened, slowing them both, but not enough to prevent injury. He swore loudly and released Taggs who drifted easier now that there was no added weight. Victor had no time to straighten his legs or arms. He thought fleetingly of Meav and the feel of her cold skin on his chest before his body collided with the water. His shoulder blade dislocated and his right arm uselessly flopped at his side. Winded, he gasped for breath, struggling to right himself. He kicked forward and up and broke through the water's surface, bellowing his pain to the newborn night air. He bobbed on his injured side, waiting for Sloan or Manson, anyone…

A shadow blocked out the moon. Taggs's unconscious form drifted in and landed softly feet away. Victor swam sideways, grunting in pain at each movement. He slid his hand through one of the shoulder straps and let his body loosen up now that he had support. He pinched Taggs's arm with his claw.

"Taggs, wake up."

Receiving no response Victor tried a different approach by digging his claw into Tagg's elbow. He was rewarded by Taggs jolting awake with a cry of pain. "What? What happened?"

"You-didn't-jump, that's what happened," Victor growled.

"Hey, what's that?"

Victor tilted his head back to see what Taggs was pointing at. "Oh, you're shitting me. Hold your breath, Taggs, we're going under. On three…"

"Victor, what _is_ it?"

"Three!"

Victor ripped Taggs from his life vest, dislocated him from the parachute, and plunged, dragging him under. He dove deep into the black and watched the spotlight from Fang's aircraft scan the area for them. Several dozen feet down, the light couldn't detect them, but Taggs was showing signs of distress and jabbed Victor's side urgently. Victor held a hand over Taggs's nose, signaling him to wait a moment longer. Finally, the craft moved on and Victor rocketed for the surface. Taggs choked thankfully on air.

"We're going to have to swim inland," said Victor. "It's that way, behind us. But you need to pop my shoulder back into place first."

"How did-?"

"We were falling too fast; I had to let go. I hit the water too hard and out it went. So hold onto the elbow here and the jut of the shoulder. On my count push back in. Ready, one-_aaargh!_"

Two counts too early Taggs popped Victor's shoulder so that he wouldn't expect it. Victor swore and punched the water angrily.

"You ready to swim?"

Sparing him an insult Victor used a forward stroke. Taggs kept right alongside him, voicing his thoughts on what happened to the other three. Victor cut him off. "They'll be fine, they jumped before the explosion."

By the worried expression on Taggs's face, Victor could see that he didn't believe a word of it.


	7. Chapter 7: The Rooftop

**This will be a much shorter chapter than the rest solely because of its importance to the story and I feel that it deserves its own chapter. **

It was an exhausting, uneventful swim back to land and it took Taggs's hotwiring skills to find them the right car back to Boston. Both of them smelt strongly of fish walking around in torn and burnt clothes, so they had attracted many stares the entire way up from the Carolinas. Taggs stumbled in through Macy's with Victor staggering along in his wake.

"I'm ready for a shower and a nap-"Taggs remarked before he was tackled by Chloe. Not two seconds later Meav soared into Victor's sore and weary arms.

"What-?"

"Manson said the jet exploded-no one knew what happened to you. Where've you been?"

"Nothing happened, don't worry," said Taggs, inhaling the scent of Chloe's hair. "We're fine now, just fine." He knelt before her and took one of her hands. "I told you I wanted you to answer a question for me when I got back. Chloe Harley, will you marry me?" He presented a beautifully woven transparent glass ring to Chloe who clapped a hand to her mouth. She nodded, sobbing. Taggs slipped the ring onto her right hand ring finger and kissed her.

Victor felt a hollow, empty feeling in his stomach. Meav had let him go to congratulate Taggs and Chloe so he was able to sneak out quietly without being noticed. He found the stairs to the roof next to JCPenny's. Once certain that no one had followed him and that he was well out of hearing distance he kicked his foot through one of the heaters. Sometimes-no, _all the time_, life was so un_fair_. Why was it that Taggs could propose so easily and everyone was okay with it? If _he_ had the nerve to do that he'd have a riot on his hands and they'd have chased him halfway to San Diego by now. It just wasn't his purpose to settle down, was it? He wasn't a rapist, even if he had murdered. People saw him as a dangerous criminal in every aspect, which he technically was, but he had never-would never-rape a woman. And however much he desired to be with just one woman, it wouldn't happen willingly, not for him.

"Victor, are you up here?"

Pulling on a poker face Victor responded, "Yeah, I'm over here."

"You alone?"

"Yeah, came up for some air," said Victor dismissively.

"You look completely worn out," Meav commented. "Actually, you look terrible."

"I feel terrible," he admitted.

"You aren't mad at Taggs and Chloe, are you? Because they think you are with how you took off without saying anything to them. Did they do something?"

"No," said Victor hurriedly. "It just-his proposal-it made me realize something."

"Really, what?"

Victor's heart beat madly at the innocent, clueless look on Meav's face. What would she say if he came clean? How would the others react? Would Slo kick him out for good if he asked her? Would Manson side with him? Would Todd go berserk on him? To Victor, the worst that could happen would be that she would say no.

"You know that I do everything I can to protect you." A statement, not a question, the truth.

"Yes."

"Well, there's a bit of a problem with that. There's a boundary to the extent of how I protect you."

"What boundary?"

"Todd."

"So, wait, I'm confused, what are you trying to say?"

Victor drew in breath through his nose. "Todd still has it in his head that he has a responsibility for you."

"So?" Was there sharpness in her tone? Or was that enthusiasm?

"So," he took her hand softly, stroking her cool pale skin with an extraordinary amount of gentleness," he wouldn't do that if you were, say, taken? I mean," his mouth was extremely dry, "I could do so much more for if _we_ were more than friends."

Meav's jaw dropped open in shock. "Do you mean you're-are you asking me to-did you just-_propose?_"

Relieved that she had caught on so quickly but terrified at what her answer was yet to be, Victor jerked his head up and down. "Um, I think I did."

Neither of them spoke, transfixed in the moment. The turn of events had just gone from normal to awkward in a heartbeat. Victor's brain screamed at him for being a stupid, cowardly bastard who no woman would ever-

"Yes."

Victor gaped. "Yes?"

Meav leaned in towards him. Urged on by the part of him that desired her, Victor covered the last few centimeters. Their lips met in the passion that both of them has wanted since their first meeting. He wove his fingers through her hair to pull her closer and she succumbed to his gentle strength willingly. When at last they broke apart Meav was in tears as she rested her forehead against Victor's. "What happens now?" she wondered aloud.

"We have to tell someone," said Victor. "Manson will take this rationally. It'll have to take place really soon because there may not be time once the war starts. We're mutants and life is rushed. I don't know exactly what to do for the wedding, I mean, I don't even have a ring for you-"

Meav ran a soothing hand over his cheek. "It doesn't need to be anything special. I just want Manson to marry us and a couple of witnesses; no reception, no honeymoon, nothing that would expose us to Fang."

Victor laughed in relief. "I can't tell you how happy I am to hear you say that."

"I don't want it more than three days after Taggs and Chloe's wedding unless they wait, which they won't."

"And what about Todd?"

Meav showed the first signs of doubt. "I don't know. If he finds out he might leave us, or commit suicide, or expose us to the other mutants to get back at you but we won't be able to hide it from him. It'll break his heart-"

Before she could plunge into a crazy explanation Victor cut her off. "First of all, revealing me to Fang would mean revealing you and Todd would never do that, no matter how much you hurt him. Secondly, he has nowhere to go unless he's planning on dying early. And lastly, he's a grown man. Everyone has losses, some of us more than others, and he knows that by now. He has time to find someone where I've been waiting for over a century for you. I don't want to wait any longer Meav."

"Then I won't make you wait."


	8. Chapter 8: Eternity

Victor knocked on Manson's door nervously. His hand was sweaty in Meav's and she squeezed it reassuringly. Manson opened the door with his toothbrush hanging partially out of his mouth. "Yesh?" he said through a mouthful of toothpaste.

"We need to talk," said Victor, hiding his and Meav's hands behind his back. "Alright if we come in?"

Nodding, Manson beckoned them inside and motioned to two armchairs. His room surprised Victor with how neat and tidy it was. Manson had gone to great lengths to make his solitude homey. From the back room Victor heard him spitting out his toothpaste and rinsing his mouth. He came back out, wiping his sleeve over his damp lips. "What's up?"

"Um…" Victor was at a loss for words. He needed to put this delicately, be firm, but at ease, and-

"Victor asked me to marry him and I said yes," Meav announced

Or Meav could tell him.

A wry smile spread across Manson's face. "Saw that one coming; saw Taggs and Chloe's; you're anxious to start lives together before the war, which is understandable. And I suppose you want me to do the honors?"

"If you're not busy," Victor said, unable to keep the sarcasm from his voice. Meav stepped on his foot.

"Well, if one of you goes and brings the other couple here we might be able to work something out."

"I'll go," Meav volunteered.

She had been gone a good half minute when Manson shook Victor's hand. "You've just made me a very happy man Victor. Meav's had that forlorn, mate-longing look for a long time. I think she knew you were coming and that's why she didn't get too close to Todd. He feels for her, but she wouldn't have him. Now she has you. Did you give her-?"

"No," said Victor guiltily. "I don't have anything for her. The only way I could get a ring is if I steal one and that's just plain stupid. I'll have to earn some cash or something."

Manson pulled out a false bottom to his bedside cabinet, revealing a thick wad of bills. He counted out seven crisp Benjamin Franklins and set them on Victor's armrest. "Take this."

"No, I can't-,"

"You saw how much more I've got. Listen, Victor, we're mutants and we scavenge or secretly buy what we need. What are we going to spend the money on? Life insurance? You're getting married, put some effort into it."

Victor was grateful that Meav chose this moment to walk in with Taggs and Chloe, both of whom appeared confused. He nodded fervently to Manson and hurriedly tucked the money into his pocket

"Why're we here?" Taggs asked Manson.

"Well, it seems you weren't the only one with a proposal on his mind tonight, Taggs. Victor here's just asked Meav to marry him. They want to have the wedding after you're unless you were planning on waiting…"

"No," the couple chorused.

"Then when?"

Taggs shrugged one shoulder, turning to Chloe for advice. She consulted the calendar above Manson's desk. "Thursday work for you? Could you have a license by then?"

"I have a license now," Manson stated. "Thursday works just fine. That'd leave Saturday for you and Meav, Victor?"

"Saturday's great," said Meav, giving Victor a glowing look.

Taggs wrung hands with Victor. "Congratulations."

"You too. But Manson, there's still a slight problem."

"Oh?"

"Todd, if he find out, Black Hole's going to be on our ass in seconds. Todd can't know until I've killed that bastard."

"That may be unavoidable," said Manson regrettably.

"We'll just tell him we're together, but not married if he asks too many questions," Meav said simply. "And we'll make it clear that we haven't slept together."

"That should work out just fine, now who do you want as witnesses?"

"Slo," Victor said quickly. "I want him to be there and," he looked to Taggs, "you two, if you would."

"We'd be glad to," Chloe agreed. She and Meav rushed out the door, chatting excitedly. Taggs sank into an armchair, setting his head back among the cushions. There was an all-knowing smirk on his face. "Not as easy as it looks, is it, Victor? The fear of denial, of consequences, it's enough to make you break out in a marathon sweat."

"Worst part's over, though, right?"

"Not exactly, the actual wedding is downright terrifying. There's that fear that she'll walk out or that you won't be able to pull through."

"Thanks for the pep talk," Victor sniped.

"It's what goes through every guy's head sometime before the wedding, man. But with mutants it's a little different. There's no one else for us but the one in the gown."

"Damn, the dress! I can't pay for that-or a tux, or-,"

"We'll get her a simple dress," Manson provided. "She and Chloe can go shopping tomorrow; meanwhile you and Taggs can rent out tuxes. Afterwards you'll come straight back here and act as if nothing happened, okay? Relax, Victor, this is a wedding, you're not going to war."

"Feels a hell of a lot worse, though. I'm not afraid of the sounds of battle or anything related to it. What's got me is how Todd is going to react to our 'dating'."

"Worry about that when the time comes," Manson advised. "In the meantime I suggest you go shopping for that tux and ring and don't you dare come back here without them."

It wasn't half as bad as Victor expected. True, he had acquired the usual number of stares, but the actual process of picking out the ring was rather enjoyable. He took a good two hours to examine every ring on display and finally chose one with a pearl encased between two conjoined diamond strands. The clerk seemed quite glad to be rid of him. On the other hand, it was a terrifying nightmare attempting to find a tux that wouldn't shred every time he twitched a muscle. The first one he had tried on caused Taggs to burst out in a fit of uncontrollable laughter that caused him to have to leave the store for about ten minutes to calm down. Fifteen tries later he found one that suited him and exited the store in a surly mood.

However, the day dawned much too early of his wedding. He had watched Taggs intently two days prior, making mental notes on his every gesture as he was hoping to pick up tips. Taggs's performance was flawless and he and Chloe tied the knot just like any human couple would. Even with his guidelines, Victor couldn't' help but feel that anxious, fearful jolt deep in his stomach that Taggs had mentioned. War was his comfort zone where he could act and move freely, but a wedding would be an absolute terror. For Meav, though, he'd go through with it.

He rolled over on his mattress, twisting the sheets and watched the clock tick 5:15 a.m. The wedding was only four hours away. He decided to dress now instead of later when he might not want to come within a mile of his tux. As he tossed aside his t-shirt he thought of the conversation with Sloan he had had not twenty-four hours ago…

_He had come right out with it. "Meav and I are getting married tomorrow."_

_Sloan didn't look at all surprised. "Yeah, and?"_

"_I want you to be my best man," Victor stated. "You brought me in and I wouldn't have met Meav if you hadn't had sense enough to step in and watch my ass that night in the bar. I'd like you to be a part of my wedding. Will you?"_

_Sloan considered him for a minute, but his mock look of uninterest gave way to the grin Victor remembered. "I guess."_

The minutes flew by; one Victor was fastening up the buttons of his tunic and the next he was taking his place at the altar to greet and accept his bride. Sloan and Taggs were well suited up like him as was Manson. Chloe donned her own wedding dress and looked completely at ease, admiring her ring. Victor swallowed with one minute to go before Meav's entrance. He laughed inwardly. If only Jimmy could see his war-crazed, power-hungry, wild brother now, a nervous wreck in a tuxedo preparing to marry. The irony of it.

"Victor, don't forget to breathe," whispered Taggs.

Victor glanced sideways and caught Sloan's eye. Sloan winked. "You'll do fine, mate."

The doors opened and if Victor thought before that he would have trouble breathing it was nothing to the reality that hit him when he saw her standing in the doorway with the sunlight catching the sleek silk strands of her dark chocolate hair. He had never before seen such a thing of magnificent and breathtaking beauty. His heart caught in his throat and a true, genuine smile claimed his mouth. In the single moment that she locked eyes with him he felt his very being change. He owed his existence to her and he let go of the wild, solitary animal within him.

They joined hands at the altar and Victor was puzzled to see that his fingernails looked-was it possible-human. Manson recited the customary wedding dialogue which Victor had heard many times over but never believed he'd say. He took special meaning from the phrase dedicated to the everlasting protection of his soul mate.

'…till death do you part?"

Death would not ever part them. In moments she would belong to him and he would be her shield and shelter for all eternity. They need not worry about death as long as Victor was alive…and he _was_ immortal.

He delighted in the exclamation she made when he slid the ring onto her finger. In turn, her ring for him was a silver band engraved with his and her initials. He smiled his appreciation.

The vows were spoken, the rings presented, and Manson stated the last words that were all Victor had wanted to hear from the beginning. He fastened one hand around her waist, lifted her chin with the other, and claimed her as his own.

Sloan and Taggs slapped his back the second he broke apart from Meav. Chloe embraced Meav, both women sobbing as all women did. Manson once again shook Victor's hand. Victor locked arms with Meav and strode from the alter with no other thought on his mind but his wife-except perhaps the joy that he would be able to change back into his normal clothes.

Victor had packed his tuxedo away, leaving it to be returned later. Meav likewise concealed her dress in her closet and the two met at the food court for lunch with no traces of having just returned from their own wedding. Sloan, Taggs, Manson and Chloe betrayed no emotion to those in the room still oblivious to what had happened. The normal chatter arose and for the first time Victor joined in. He found it difficult not to reveal his feelings for his wife when he spoke to her or when her glistening smile lit up the room. However, it was when she reached for a napkin in the middle of the table that he noticed a horrible mistake. Todd had his eyes cast down at the napkins and was sure to notice. The disaster about to follow would be unavoidable, as Manson had said.

Victor stood up abruptly, knocking contents from the table. At the same time Todd grabbed Meav's left hand and pulled it up to his face. "What-the-_fuck_-is-_this?_"

Meav gasped, struggling to pull her arm back.

Todd's eyes traveled to Victor's hand absent of a ring, then to his face, and back to Meav. "He gave you this, didn' he? You're married to 'im, arentchoo?"

"Todd," said Manson, backing away slowly from the table, "easy."

There was no presence of Black Hole in Todd's eyes. The hate, the absolute loathing he felt towards Victor was all his won and it consumed him. His hand went for his Colt Magnum and the occupants of the table threw themselves under it. A bullet embedded itself in Victor's throat and he had only just felt the sting when a second caught his chest. A third was buried in his stomach. Todd was relentless, letting the entire magazine loose into Victor. Once it ran on empty he threw it aside and made a leap for Victor but Eli knocked his feet out from under him and held him down. Todd gave Eli a jab to the ribs and a jaw uppercut, then gained his feet, bypassed Victor, and continued on towards the back door, never looking back as he screamed his heart out while it shattered within him.

Eli surfaced from under the table, bleeding from the mouth. "He's headed for downtown."

Victor swept the tail of his coat behind him to begin giving chase but Manson's hand rested on his shoulder. "Let him go."

"He'll come back," Eli claimed.

"How do you know that?" Victor demanded.

Eli shook his head sadly, his blank eyes full of regret. "His eyes were pure black when he ran out that door. Black Hole can feel his pain now and he had him when he took off. Black Hole will be the one coming back in Todd's body."


	9. Chapter 9: Obsession of a Scientist

Now that their secret was out Victor and Meav decided to take advantage of the situation and exercise their marital rights.

"I should probably move into your room," Victor stated. "Mine's a little too small and dirty." He pushed his carried mattress up against Meav's to create a king-sized bed and collapsed face first on it.

"You should let me sew up those bullet holes in your clothes," Meav offered. Victor shrugged off his coat and button down shirt and tossed them into Meav's lap. She took a needle to the tears left by the bullets and Victor turned onto his side to watch her.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," she answered in a higher voice than usual. She missed her target with the needle and pricked her finger, dropping Victor's coat. Victor reached over and scooped her up in one arm, cradling her against his chest while she wept. He knew what was going through her mind; Todd had been under Black Hole's influence when he left. Black Hole would know that they were married and would use that against them.

"We'll be okay, honey. I'm with you now, everything will work out." He raised her hand to his lips and licked off the blood. Meav lifted her lips to meet his and snuggled in closer to him. Thoughts flashed before Victor's half-closed eyes but he disregarded them: not now, it was too soon. He wouldn't rush or force her into anything. He simply sat on their now and forevermore shared bed, pressing his lips to hers with all the joy and peace he desired. She was all he needed and wanted and he felt that if the world were to end at that moment, he would be perfectly fine with it as long as he had her.

And she wasn't there when he rubbed the sleep from his eyes the following morning. He rushed to the door and flung it open, trampling Sloan who had just begun to raise a fist to knock. Victor swept him back up, brushing him off in apology.

"Victor, if you're looking for Meav, she's with Manson and Grant in the, erm, bathroom."

Victor absentmindedly contracted his claws in Sloan's forearms. "Why? What happened? What's wrong with her, Slo?"

Once he had knocked the men's bathroom door over it became apparent _what_ was wrong. Meav clutched at her stomach that had swollen in the time span of ten hours. Her eyes were red and puffy as she held Manson's hand on the floor.

"What the hell—Meav?"

Grant pinched the bridge of his nose in slight embarrassment. "I took a look at her this morning, about an hour ago. She went to Manson and told him that she felt, well, bloated, and she'd also felt a nudge. They came to me and I scanned the inside of her. I don't know how, Victor, but she's pregnant."

Pregnant, as in having a child in the midst of the roots of a mutant war pregnant? Victor felt himself drop and his knees clunked against the tiled floor. He came down onto all fours, swallowing his vomit. _How?_ How the fucking _hell_? Everyone knew how babies were created, by the sperm mating the egg and never otherwise. It was impossible to have a child without sex. The inconvenient timing of it all, the rush, the speed, the impossibility, it was just too outrageous to be true. Hadn't it been this time yesterday that he had _married_ the woman? Now she was pregnant for reason unexplained. Time had taken flight oh him since his coming into this mutant family. It didn't see fit to go any faster than a mountain forming for the century and a half that Victor wished that it would speed up and now it was backstabbing him, giving him a child.

"But we didn't _do_ anything," Victor said hoarsely. "I just kissed her, that's all. This can't be right. Now is not the time to be having a kid. I told her we'd wait. Why the hell's it happening?"

Grant rubbed a soothing hand on Victor's back. "She's four months pregnant. It's a boy."

At this point Victor could hold it back no longer. He tipped the trash bin over and ducked his head inside it, hurling violently. The sound of his own throw-up hitting the plastic walls made him cringe. He crawled to Meav and sat back on his knees, reaching out for her ashen face. She managed an upturned lip.

"I'm not scared, Victor, I'm just nervous. He likes to kick."

_He likes to kick?_ She was already speaking about the kid as if she'd had him for the whole four months that her belly claimed. And how could she say it so calmly and _lovingly?_ She had become pregnant overnight and she was perfectly fine with it. If _he_ had become pregnant or something had happened to _him_ overnight…he shuddered, chiding himself for such a stupid thought. Still, it was impossible, yet it stared him right in the face.

Meav encouraged Victor to touch the swell. He felt a prod against his palm and drew back, startled. "I'm so sorry, honey."

"It'll be alright," Meav assured him.

"H-how fast is this thin-kid growing?" Victor asked Grant.

"If she reaches eight months by tonight she'll have the baby tomorrow," Grant calculated.

"_What?_" Victor shoved Grant up against the wall and lifted him inches off the ground. "Don't you dare say that to me. Take it back. I just got married; damn you, and now you're telling me I'm going to have a kid tomorrow? Are you fucking insane?"

"I can't control that Victor. I don't know how the hell it happened, but it did and whether you like it or not, whether you're ready or you aren't, she's going to have this boy and you are married to her, you're the only one who's ever kissed her, so that makes you the father. Do you have any experience with kids?"

Victor dropped Grant and bent over the sink, splashing cold water into his damp face. He didn't need a mutant with x-ray vision telling him that the baby was coming; he needed a real doctor—or a scientist who specialized in mutants. Someone who was obsessed with mutants, but also hated them. Someone who was the cause of Victor's life turning in the first place. He needed Stryker.

"You are not going out to find this bastard on your won," Sloan called to Victor's retreating back when Victor stormed from the bathroom after explaining his objective. "It could take months to find him and he may have some big-ass bodyguards by then. Besides, he can't stop that baby coming-"

"I don't want to stop him coming; I just want to know _why_ he's coming, why he's here. Stryker's the only person I can think of and I know where he is. It wsd on the news a couple of days ago that he was picked up for questioning, but they have him in a regular apartment building under surveillance. "

"I thought you said he ruined your life-"

"No, he ruined my brother's, he only dented mine. I just want to talk to him, that's all. And I want to do it alone."

"And I want to come with you, so I guess we're stuck here." Sloan crossed his arms and barred the Sears window stubbornly. "I'll be quiet, I promise."

Rolling his eyes, Victor gave Sloan a small shove to move him. "Knock it off, you sound like a four-year-old. You'd better be quiet or I'll throw you out Stryker's window."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"It's a twenty-five story apartment and he's at the top. It might tickle."

"Don't pinch, you're ruining my concentration," Victor hissed at Sloan. They were beside the window of Stryker's apartment and while Sloan had a hold on the windowsill he also held onto Victor's arm while the latter picked the lock on the window. "I'll go in first and you cover the door."

Victor slid the window up and slipped in between the drawn curtains. Sloan dropped onto the floor behind him and crept over to the door across the room, listening for sounds on the other side. He gave Victor the thumbs up and Victor stole into the bedroom. A momentary urge to kill clamped around him before he remembered the real reason why he was here. He padded silently over to the side of Stryker's bed and watched the colonel sleep through his screwed up life. Flicking one claw, he poked Stryker's neck.

"It's eleven o'clock, time to wake up, colonel."

Stryker rubbed at his eyes with his palms and peered at Victor through the darkness, yawning. "The hearing's not until two thirty, Russo."

"Russo stepped out," said Victor. He switched the bedside lamp on. Stryker's eyes widened in absolute terror and he threw himself sideways off the bed. Victor caught his ankle and reeled him in by his faded gray sock. "If you scream I'll kill you," Victor warned him. "Get up, go into the living room."

Stryker obeyed and scampered into the main room. He stopped at the sight of Sloan kneeling by the door and watching him. Victor elbowed him hard in the back. "Sit down on the couch. Slo, set for stun and take out anyone that comes through that door."

Stryker sat down shakily on the stained couch. He had lost weight everywhere and his bones were sticking out all over the place. His face was gaunt, eyes dark and bruised-looking. "I left you alone, didn't I Victor? I didn't send anyone after you."

"That's because you had nothing to come at me with, you piece of shit," Victor growled. "Otherwise I'd be on the run. But I'm not, I'm married."

"Oh," exclaimed Stryker, failing to pull on a convincing face, "congratulations. That's wonderful news."

"And my wife is pregnant," Victor continued.

"I'm happy for you-"

"Shut up. We got married only yesterday, you stupid bastard. And we didn't do anything, we didn't have sex and she's pregnant. She swelled up overnight and we took an x-ray of her which tells us that she's four months into it. A further test said that she could have the baby tomorrow. I want to know _how?_"

For the first time there was a flicker of interest in place of fear on Stryker's aging features. "Really? You didn't have sex and she's pregnant? Well, I-I'm not sure how that happened-"

"Liar!" Victor pounded on Stryker's armrest, missing his wrist by a fraction of a millimeter. "You know, tell me!"

"Victor, keep your voice down," said Sloan from his back right.

"Shut up Slo. Come clean, Stryker, I want to know."

Stryker leaned back as far as possible to distance himself from Victor. "Well, I'll need to know some, um, details on what you did do with her-ow!"

Victor clamped his claws over Stryker's knuckles bones, glaring at him. "Watch it, Stryker. Be careful of what you say from here on out. And all I did was kiss her."

"On the lips?" Stryker said in a small voice.

"Yes, you sick son of a bitch," Victor tightened his hold on the clammy skin.

"Easy, easy, Victor. I had to ask," Stryker said hurriedly. "And I can tell you why she's pregnant." Victor's grasp slackened. "The same thing happened to you, did you know that? Years back when I went looking for you and Logan I read what files I could find and connected them to an interesting puzzle. Both of you were born to the same father but different mothers under unusual circumstances. You had non-sexual births, and given the fact that you're mutants, your father added a sperm to your mothers unknowingly and unintentionally through the mouth, or a simple kiss. It's all a very complicated process which involves the genetic code and whatnot and I believed it to be impossible at first, but it happened and I'm guessing that you inherited your father's traits of being able to pass on the sperm that way."

"So, you're telling me my wife is pregnant because I _kissed_ her?"

"Yes, but I could run some tests and fix this," began Stryker eagerly before Victor dug his knuckle into Stryker's stomach and stuffed a pillow over his face to stifle the scream. He removed the pillow after a moment and growled at Stryker.

"You're not running any tests on my wife or son, colonel. I happen to not trust you."

"Okay, okay, it was just a suggestion."

"A bad one," Victor corrected.

"Yes, a very bad one," Stryker agreed.

"Slo, time to go, get away from there," Victor called. Sloan stepped into the light and Stryker's eyebrows shot up towards his overgrown bangs.

"Sloan Solomon, the weapon transformer?"

Victor stuck one claw over Stryker's ear and the other under his jaw. Stryker tensed. "Don't even think about it Stryker. We're leaving now and if you tell anyone we were here I'll know. I'll hunt you down and make your life hell before I kill you. And I'll have a reason to kill you too. Slo, the window."

"You found _him_?" Stryker continued, catching sight of the scars on Sloan's hand that Victor had left. "You two have already had a fight, haven't you?"

Sloan cocked his silenced pistol. "Keep talking; I'll put a bullet in your mouth, you bastard."

Stryker didn't seem intimidated by Sloan at all but on the contrary he looked from Victor to Sloan in excited disbelief. "You mean neither of you _know_?"

"Know what?" asked Victor.

"Never mind what we don't know, what do you know about Fang, Stryker?" I know you're still getting information from the outside. What's Fang doing?"

Stryker's face fell slightly. "He's recruiting by the dozens now. I heard that he's planning to make a move on another mutant group. The poor bastards won't stand a chance."

Victor kicked Stryker's ankle, crushing it to the couch. "Those poor bastards would be us, still feel sorry?"

Stryker blinked. "You? Fang's coming after you? Why? Why aren't you on his team, Victor? It's not like you to choose the losing side."

Sloan buried the nozzle of his pistol into Stryker's kneecap. "You'd know all about loss, wouldn't you colonel? I heard what happened to your wife and that's why you hate us. You put your own son away to go on some obsessed mutant scavenger hunt. I'll bet your wife would be just thrilled to find out what you've done in her memory."

"Shut your mouth," Stryker said coldly, going rigid.

"Are you sure you didn't just kill her yourself to have an excuse for poaching mutants?"

"I said shut your damn mouth!" Stryker went for Sloan's throat and Victor jumped in between them, lifting Stryker dangerously close to the rotating ceiling fan.

"Bad move, colonel."

"Now, Victor, take it easy. I can help you, you know I can. I have nothing to fight you with; I'm defenseless. What purpose would be served in killing me?"

"It'd make me feel a hell of a lot better, but I've got a better idea." Victor dropped Stryker and kicked at him. "Get your shoes on, that's all you'll need and then take a seat on the coffee table."

Stryker tripped over his own feet to lace up his scuffed shoes and take his place where Victor instructed. Victor ripped the fabric from a pillow and secured it around Stryker's yes. He then cut the remaining fabric into strips which he tied together and bound around Stryker's wrists behind his back. "Will I have to gag you colonel?"

Stryker's head shook desperately. "Good. Besides, you should be thanking me. Let's move, Slo."

"We can't take him Victor, Manson will flip his lid."

"He can bitch at me all he wants but he's coming with us."

**This Stryker is Danny Huston's from X-Men Origins. Let me know what you think so far.**


	10. Chapter 10: Monsters

"Do-_not_-come-in-here-with-him-Victor!" Manson fumed at Victor when he saw Stryker on wobbly knees being half dragged behind him.

"I need him Manson. If Meav's going to have a baby I need a professional looking at him to make sure he's not going to burst out of her and rip her up."

"And how long do you plan on keeping him?

"Until I don't need him anymore. He won't be any trouble, will you colonel?" Victor brought his knee to Stryker's stomach. "Right?"

"Right," Stryker coughed.

"See? How's Meav doing?"

"Five months in now," said Manson.

Stryker turned his head in Manson's direction. "Have you taken an x-ray of her in the past two hours? How big is the baby?"

Grant answered him from down the hall. "Same as any fetus five months along. I'm guessing that the boy will be here by early morning unless she slows down."

"I really should take a look at her Victor-"

"I think that's my decision to make. Manson, could you get Taggs and Darien down here to lock him up? I need to talk to Meav alone. Where is she?"

"You room," said Grant, watching Stryker with distaste.

Victor let go of Stryker's arm and headed left for his and Meav's shared quarters. He knocked and entered without waiting for a reply. His tense, sparked attitude calmed at the sight of her curled up tightly on their bed, watching him. "Did you find Stryker?"

Victor nodded, sitting down by her feet. Meav intertwined her fingers with his and sighted. "You brought him back, didn't you?"

"When the kid-the boy's born I need Stryker to examine him and make sure nothing's wrong with him."

"Victor, you do realize this is your child too? He's half yours created by _your_ sperm."

"Really? Are you sure it wasn't Todd's sperm?" He hadn't meant to say it, but he had to be open to all possibilities. He didn't want to believe that he had supplied the sperm for the boy's existence, but the thought that Meav might have slept with Todd…

"What?" Meav sat up, placing her arms protectively around her belly. "What did you say? You think that I'd-how could you _say_ that?"

"So, you didn't sleep with Todd? Or anyone else?"

"No! I haven't even slept with _you_ if you want to get technical, Victor! And even if I had, I couldn't get pregnant overnight! Now why the hell would you ask me something like that? Do you not want this baby; is that what you're saying?"

"No, that's not it." Should he feel relieved that he was the sole contributor to Meav's baby? "It's just that this all really bad timing. Meav, Stryker told me that Fang's closing in on us. It might be tomorrow that they come and if you have the baby during that, the action and excitement might kill you both. I can protect you from everything except what's inside you. What if you die in childbirth and he killed you on his way out? I couldn't take care of him."

"Why not?" said Meav softly.

"When we finally would have decided to have sex I would have wanted to use condoms so that you wouldn't get pregnant. A child is something I don't think I can handle. Look at me; I'm not someone who should be a father. I would abuse them because of my nature and if I had offspring just like me it'd kill you. I can think of a million reasons why I should not be a father."

"You fooled yourself when you married me," Meav pointed out. "Did you ever think you'd marry? No, but you did. Our baby's the same way. We'll deal with it as it comes."

"But he's coming _tomorrow_ Meav, and I think Fang is too."

"Then they'll both come. And we'll be waiting."

Victor leaned over her legs and kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry."

Sloan knocked on the door. "Taggs is picking up a hell of a lot of people coming our way. We need you at the front. Meav, you and Chloe will be with Stryker in the center rooms."

His mind went into overdrive as Victor hurried to take his position by the main entrance. There was no way his luck could be that bad; that Fang had arrived so soon. They weren't' ready and had no plan of action. They'd be slaughtered.

"Can you hear Fang of any of the others, Taggs?" Manson shouted at Taggs down the hall by the south entrance.

"No, but there's at least fifty of them, maybe more and they're all coming our way."

"Where's the kid? He might be able to tell us-"

"They're almost here, Manson, what do we do?"

"Hold the line, Slo. We'll fend them off as long as we have to, as long as it takes for Meav and Chloe to get out. Be ready, boys!"

A mad pounding came from the doors. Victor prayed for the safety of his wife and son, pleading for a small chance that they could escape.

"Don't attack!" Eli hollered, bursting into the hall and waving his hands desperately. "It's not Fang, it's Todd!"

Todd, the mad Camo Boy, had come back to them. At this point, being Todd, who Victor saw as a pain in the ass was a welcome one. Todd marched through the doors with a host of no doubtedly mutants of every nature flanking him. He walked in his bow legged fashion up to Victor and smirked knowingly. "Thought I'd made I run for it, didncha? Thought I wasn' comin' back, eh? Well, Black Hole took over 'bout a minute before I left so I knew that he'd know where you lot were. I figured that since I let 'im finally see where we've been hidin' out, I'd better make up for it by bringin' in the cavalry. There's a couple of Class 4's here, but most are 3's and 2's." He leaned sideways to look at Eli. "Oi, thanks for givin' Vike here the heads up, mate, 'preciate it."

As much as he hated to do it, Victor felt that he owed Todd an apology. "Look, Todd, I-"

"Whoa, hang on a tick, where'd this Todd come from? What happened to Camo Boy?"

"Well, if you'd like I can switch back-"

"No, carry on."

"Well, about what happened, um, yesterday-"

"I don' need to hear it. I knew that she loved you, anyone could tell; sort of obvious. I knew that you wouldn' hurt her because there was this human, _normal_ look on your face when you were 'round her. I should've seen it comin, but I was hopin' that she might change her mind, y'know? I'll admit it; I was jealous and-hurt, so I needed time to mull things over."

"You must have wanted it pretty badly, you ran out on that broken leg," Victor observed.

Todd shook his pant leg carelessly. "Girl in the crowd's a bone healer-and breaker. She fixed me up."

"How'd you get so many Todd?" Meav inquired.

"Persuasion," Todd answered deviously. "But they're here to help, so just tell 'em what the plan is an' they'll be all set."

"It'll be impossible to keep Fang out of the building completely, so I decided to concentrate our base on the east side, stopping at the entrance between Jared and the bathrooms. Taggs will cover the food court with some of yours, then I'll have Slo and Bredan at Sears, you and Eli at Foley's, Grant and Darien on the far east parking lot, then I'll take this entrance here with Penn. How many do you have?"

"Seventy-nine exactly, which makes ninety even, then."

"Well, not exactly," said Manson hesitantly. "I don't want Chloe or Meav fighting. If we can't hold out then they'll escape, so don't worry about that."

"And where'll Vike be during all of this?"

"He'll join up with Taggs when he's, um, done."

"Done?"

Victor swallowed and stated," My father got my mom pregnant by inserting a sperm through a kiss. It seems impossible, but that's how I was born. They never had sex to have me. I got the same mutative genes, so when I kissed Meav-"

"She got pregnant," Todd finished, looking rather green. "Why do I feel a 'there's more' comin' on?"

"She's five months pregnant, four this morning and probably seven by midnight. She's going to have the baby tomorrow and it's a boy."

Todd covered his mouth with the backside of his hand. "Erm, well that's-that's…h-have you thought of a name for 'im?"

"No, we haven't discussed it," said Victor wryly, watching Todd with caution. Todd pounded his palm against his temple, wincing.

"Jus' gimme a sec…" Moments later he opened his eyes and sniffed. "Sorry, felt a Black Hole comin' on there. Well, should I say congratulations?"

Victor shrugged. "Do you want to see her?"

"Yeah, I need to apologize."

"Then come with me. Manson, where are the women?"

"Storage room behind the dollar store."

"Right." Todd raised his hands for attention from the mutants still shuffling around the doorway. "Attention, everyone! Do as this man here says, he's in charge. But I would like to thank each and every one of you for comin' here. I should tell you now that there's a possibility that not all of us will make it, so you can still walk out if you want to, we'll understand." When no one moved he continued." Now I found a lot of you wanderin' by yourselves, so I know a lot of you don' have nowhere else to go. If you'd like, I'll pass out paper to anyone who wants to write a message for someone that's not here an' those messages _will_ be delivered, I promise. Also, I'm handin' 'round nametags where you can put anythin' you want on it; name, birthday, blood type, jus' so that no one's forgotten when this is all over. And again, thank you."

"Now, you know I'm going to pin you down if I see signs that you're losing it, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I won' do nothin' to hurt her." Todd turned the doorknob to the storage room but Victor grabbed Todd's arm. He had never been more serious in his life than at this moment.

"If she gets too excited it may hurt the baby. Any and everything you do in that room determines what happens to both of them, Todd. I know you don't want to hear this but if I see something that you're doing that compromises the safety of my wife or child you'll get a lot more than a broken leg. Clear?"

"Point taken Vike."

Victor opened the door and stepped inside. The lights were dim and there were still a couple of boxes stacked in the corners. Meav and Chloe sat upon a mattress ten feet from Stryker's back who had been left in the middle of the room, tied to a collapsible chair with his blindfold still on. He perked his head up and turned it towards the door. "Victor? What's going on?"

"Stryker?"

Victor hadn't been expecting this. Todd elbowed him aside and launched himself at Stryker, shouting, "Bastard!"

Tackled by an unseen foe, Stryker panicked and writhed helplessly. "Victor! Victor, get him off!"

Victor caught Todd's ankle and hauled him away, digging his knees into Todd's back. Todd's arms flayed and his legs kicked, but they did little against Victor's weight. Victor squashed Todd's face into the cool tile floor. "Breathe, Todd. Let it go and calm the hell down." Slowly, Todd's struggling attempt ceased and he lay still.

"You can get off of me now, Victor, I'm sober."

Victor hoisted Todd up by his collar. "Am I going to have to put up with any more of that?"

"Not if you tell me why the hell that son of a bitch is here," Todd snarled, glowering at Stryker's panting form still attached to the over tipped chair.

"I may need his help with the baby, plus it'd be worse if Fang found him. How do you know him?"

"He came after me before I ended up in county. Tracked me down without your help."

Victor approached Stryker's chair and right sided it. He ripped the blindfold away, grabbed Stryker's face and forced him to look at Todd. "You recognize him colonel?"

"Yes," Stryker said, trembling once again.

"Did you try to kill him?"

"No, I was only capturing mutants to observe them at that time."

Todd spat on the floor. "If Meav weren't in the room I'd put a knife in your crotch."

"Where-," began Stryker but Victor stiffened his nails in Stryker's neck.

"If you turn your head you die, Stryker. I don't want you even looking at her until I say so. Todd, take the women outside while I talk to the colonel here." Todd guided Meav and Chloe out the door with the comment, "Have fun."

Victor crouched down two feet from Stryker. "How many people have you killed William Stryker? How many children had to die because of you? These were innocent people who never hurt anyone but you still found something wrong with that."

"I'm sorry Victor."

"Don't hive me that bullshit. You're not sorry. Hell, you as good as killed my brother and the only person that's ever come face to face with you who knows what you really are who's still alive is me, so tell me why I should let you live."

"My son-"

"Don't start it with me, colonel, I'm not buying that shit."

"You may be having a son in less than twenty-four hours but you are _not_ a father yet, so you don't have the faintest idea what could happen. In a few hours' time you'll find out what's it's like to love your child and hate it so much at the same time. You can't kill him because of what your heart's telling you, but you can't bear the sight of him because your mind tells you that you hate him. Jason killed my wife, whether it was intentional or not, I don't know, but I couldn't take the inhumanity of killing him, so I had him put into a frozen sleep. I don't hate mutants, I honestly don't. Those that have died were victims to my mind being the stronger force in my body. However, the greater numbers of mutants that are alive have been fortunate to have my heart as the dominant force.

"See, you and I are alike. Both of us have mutant sons-oh, yes, your son will be a mutant-and both of us hold unconditional love for our wives. But I know what can happen if the child is uncontrollable and I don't want that to happen to Meav. This is why you need to have me take a look at her. What if she needs a C-section? You don't have the equipment for that here."

"You know everything about me, colonel, was I a C-section?"

"No, but-,"

"Then I'll put my trust in my genetic code over the man who sent a half-dead psycho robotic nutcase after me and erased my brother's memory."

"Victor, please, this is for your wife and your son. She can't have this baby while a war is going on! They'll both be killed!"

"You don't give a damn about her. You just don't want me beating your ass if something happens to her. All you've ever told me is lies, Stryker, so why the hell should I believe you now?"

"Why'd you bring me here, then? You need me, you said so yourself. You keep talking about me like I'm some sort of monster, but you don't get it. Just because I seem to not care about mutants doesn't mean I don't care about people. I mean, I'm the same as you; people thought that you only gave a damn about being at the top of the food chain, but look at you now, you're married and you're prepared to give your life for weaker mutants. How is that different from me?"

"I did the things I did because you told me to. Who was telling you to do the things you did?" Victor demanded.

"I'm done trying to convince you, Victor. I tried, but you won't listen. If Meav and the boy die, it'll be your fault."

Victor struck Stryker across the face, raking his nails along the skin. Stryker's entire right cheek bled from five deep gashes. Stryker made no sound, but shook his head to himself. "And you call me monster."


	11. Chapter 11: When One Light Goes Out

"_This doesn't change anything between us Victor. We're done."_

"_But I guess that's what you are, isn't it? An animal."_

"_I can take anything he can."_

"_No, you can't."_

"_Victor! Victor…"_

His worst memories all playing into one, Victor jostled awake to Chloe shaking him. He checked the clock on the wall; two thirty-three in the morning. "What?" he yawned, glad to be rid of his nightmares.

"Meav's water just broke."

Victor's heart plummeted and crash-landed somewhere deep inside his stomach. The baby, _his_ baby was coming…so why the hell was he still sitting down on the floor? "Go get Grant, we'll need him. I'll go to her."

In the storage room Meav was puffing and grasping the edges of the mattress. Her face was blotchy and sweaty, her hair plastered to her flushed forehead. Stryker was trying to calm her from where Victor had left him. "Meav, don't push yet. You can't have this baby without some help. Stay calm, Victor will be here any second. Easy, just breathe." Though he had been re-blindfolded Stryker had managed to turn his chair in Meav's direction. She listened to him, beginning to moan.

Victor snapped Stryker's bonds in half and Stryker tumbled out of them to land on his knees. He pulled the blindfold from his eyes and rounded to face Victor.

"What do you know about kids, colonel?"

"I-I was there when Jason was born. I coached my wife through the birth," Stryker stammered.

"That'll have to do. Get up, you're going to help deliver this baby."

"B-but I don't know how-"

"Learn. Coach Meav and Grant and Chloe will deliver him. And just so we're clear, if anything happens to her or the baby I'll make you eat your own intestines."

"Understood."

Grant and Chloe galloped inside just as Meav screamed. Chloe placed a pillow behind Meav's back and soothed her. "We're here Meav, it's alright. Grant, tell us what to do."

Easing Meav's pants off, Grant cast a blanket over her legs before sliding off her underwear. "I'll catch him when he comes out and then clean him. Victor, try to keep her calm. Alright, Meav, go ahead and push sweetheart."

Stryker knelt down near Meav's head. "Meav, keep your eyes on me. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. I'm going to have you push on three, ready? One, two, three!"

Meav sobbed, groping blindly for Victor. "It hurts Victor! I can feel him, he wants out and it _hurts_!"

"I know, honey, but I'm here. I'm going to help you through this."

"Look at me Meav," said Stryker firmly. "He should be out in two more pushes. Here comes the second one. One, two, three…"

Meav bucked, hand closing around Stryker's shirt as he said, "Push!"

Chloe stroked Meav's face with a damp cloth and Grant rubbed her knee. "You're doing fine. I can see his feet, just keep going!"

"Last one," Stryker said loudly. "Push one more time."

"Victor!" Meav choked.

A new sound rent the air; a high pitched squealing. Victor watched the infant slide into Grant's hands bathed in blood with his arms and legs tucked in as he squirmed and cried. "I've got him Meav, he's out. You did a wonderful job, he's beautiful." Grant swaddles the boy in a towel and handed him to Chloe.

"Grant, why is she still contracting like that?" asked Stryker as Meav arched her back and gave a groan of discomfort. Grant stared at Meav's stomach intently and his eyes bulged in astonishment. "There's another baby in her. She's having twins."

"How the hell could another baby just appear out of nowhere?" Victor demanded.

"I don't know but she's in there and you're going to help me get her out," Grant said heatedly.

"_She?_"

"Yes, 'she' means girl, Einstein."

The door flew open and bounded off the wall. Sloan stood there, whitewashed in the face. "Fang's coming. We need you out here Grant. Victor, you'll have to carry on by yourself."

"But-,"

"Get them out when you're done. We'll hold them off while you make a run for it, then get back here as soon as they're safe. Good luck."

"Slo, be careful."

Victor looked down upon his wife and his son in Chloe's arms. Stryker locked fingers with Meav. "You'll have to catch her when she comes out, Victor."

"You're shitting me. These hands aren't meant to be within a mile radius of babies, let alone catch my daughter. I can't do it."

"You don't have a choice. Now get in position!" Stryker caressed Meav's face. "You're going to have to push again Meav. You've got a girl coming. On three again, one, two…"

Meav pushed early and her screams split Victor's eardrums as he held his hands out under her entrance, fingernails pointed down. "Keep going, honey!"

"Victor, we have to name them now," Meav gagged, "while we still have time. I want to name them now."

"We'll do it now, honey. Just tell me what you want to call them."

"B-Benson Quinn. My dad's name was Quinn."

"Alright, Benson it is."

"And Allison Rae, I like Allison."

"Get ready to push again. One, two, three!"

"Victor, don't let anything happen to them-,"

"Hold on, Meav, pull through!"

"_Push!_" Stryker urged her.

"_Victor!_"

"_Push!_"

Victor saw the curled bundle appear from the womb and Allison fell into his awaiting hands, silent with her eyes open to watch her father curiously.

"Victor, I'm losing her!"

A shiver ran through Meav's body and she seized up all at once with a sharp exhale. Stryker pinched her nose and lowered his lips to meet her mouth. He breathed into her, drew back, and pressed four times on her chest. "Damn it!" he cursed between breaths. "Come _on!_"

"Stryker," Victor gulped, "she's not-?"

"No, I can bring her back, just give me a second."

"Stryker…"

"Take care of your daughter Victor, I'm busy! I'm getting a pulse and-yes, I have her!"

Meav drew in a shuddering breath. The lights flickered and died above. Now that Meav stopped her cries the outside shouts and noises of war were audible. For the first time since he could remember Victor did not want to merge with the battle at hand but get as far away from it as possible. "Chloe, take Allison. Hold them both and try to keep them quiet. Stryker, you'll have to carry Meav. Follow me and stick close."

The battle hadn't reached them yet so Victor was able to steer through the halls without detection. Stryker bore Meav in his arms and Chloe held both of the children in her own. Victor led them on the route to the roof. He stopped them very near to the stairs, sniffing the air. "Stryker, Chloe, get back!" He drove his fist into the wall and clamped his hand around a protruding leg. He lugged out a mutant heavily covered in tattoos who wasn't wearing a nametag. Victor wrenched his neck in the opposite direction and heard it snap in satisfaction. A second later he wheeled around to confront Todd who threw up his hands.

"Oi, take it easy Vike. Eli's holdin' up for a bit until you I get back to 'im. I'll take one of you out at a time and come back for the rest. Lemme get the kid and Chloe first."

"Kids," Stryker corrected. "We'll be waiting right here. Hurry up."

Todd held Chloe's hand, clutching Benson to his chest with the other, and the two molded into the wall, scaling upward and out onto the roof.

Victor helped Stryker lay Meav down and tossed him a pistol with a handful of magazines. "I assume you know how to use one of those, seeing as how you shot Jimmy with one. Protect her and I'll watch your ass." Both males formed as much of a protective circle around Meav as they could. While the majority of the battle raged on in the eastern concentrated area, one or two stray mutants managed to find them and they didn't hold back on their attacks when they did. A teenage girl with boiled-looking skin and a mutant that had all of his joints sticking out at odd angles charged at Victor who disemboweled one easily but the other had changed direction for Stryker. The colonel back-stepped until his ankles touched Meav's body and he let off a round to the mutant's head. Victor smelled blood and saw a trail of it on the floor.

"Stryker, are you hit?"

Checking his arms, Stryker replied, "No, I don't think so."

"Then it's Meav. Find out where the blood's coming from."

"I don't think you want me going in to check that out. She's bleeding through the blanket, from her vagina."

"Then _do_ something about it, you moron!"

"Vic-tor!"

That voice was unfamiliar, coming from the direction of the battle. Around the corner Victor distinguished a yellow gas seeping in. He knew who this was, but not the disembodied voice that had called to him. The gas quickened its sped, closing in on all sides of Victor, Stryker, and Meav. "Stryker, hold onto her!" Victor managed to spit out before the gas enveloped him. It blocked out all sight, sound, and smell, but lasted for only seconds. The thickness cleared, revealing three horrifying sights. Behind him Panic had Stryker on his stomach with his own pistol digging a hole into his back and Age-O towered over Meav's now groggy form. Ahead and in plain sight the mutant that was Fang held his similar clawed hands to Sloan's throat while Black Hole lingered nearby. In the faint emergency light Victor could now see that Fang had overgrown teeth and numerous scars. His golden eyes locked on Victor's hungrily.

"Kill him Victor!" Sloan choked.

Fang tightened his hold on Sloan's jugular. "We've been through this; this isn't going to work if you can't shut up."

"What happened to Penn, Slo?"

"They killed him. Fang took his powers and cut him open."

"Fight him, Slo, don't just stand there!"

"I-can't-fight-you-dumbass," Sloan said through bared teeth when two of the claws opened his skin.

"Stand down and I'll let him go Victor," Fang proposed. "Tell him what'll happen to you if he doesn't do as I say Sloan."

Sloan wriggled slightly and spat, "Fuck you!"

Fang hurtled him forward and smashed his foot down on Sloan's left leg. Victor cringed at the sound of Sloan's bones shattering. Sloan let out a distress cry but remained still otherwise.

"Now tell him to surrender!"

"Kill this fucker Victor!"

Victor clapped his hands over his ears as Fang broke Sloan's other leg mercilessly. "You fucking leave him alone you piece of shit!"

"Stryker! You tell him to get down on the ground with his hands behind his back or I'll break into his brother's skull. Tell him!" Fang roared.

_Brother? Where the hell did that come?_ "Stryker, what bullshit is he dishing out?"

Stryker had a pained expression on his worn features. "He doesn't need to know, Augustus. It's irrelevant now."

"What's irrelevant?" Victor asked Stryker. "And how does this bastard know about it but I don't, colonel? What are you hiding from me?"

"If I tell you there's no chance that you'll be able to save Sloan and Meav, Victor. It'll only hurt you."

Panic pinned Stryker to the ladder and hammered a metal pipe through Stryker's right shoulder which connected him to the wall. Blood dribbled from the corners of his mouth. Age-O wielded a ball of glowing orange energy in his palm. "You were in the service during Vietnam, weren't you colonel? You're familiar with the devastating factor of napalm and its cousin known as Agent-Orange? Would you like some of that to enter your bloodstream? Tell him!"

"No."

"Damn it, Stryker, what is it?" Victor bellowed at him.

"You wouldn't let me tell you before Victor. You and Logan shared a father and had non-sexual births, you know this. But your mother remarried after she left your father. This man was also a mutant, though she didn't know it at the time, and she and your stepfather moved to England. Under normal circumstances she became pregnant but this was a delayed birth. She remained pregnant for seventeen years. She refused to give her baby up and finally gave birth to a boy in 1849 who was a mutant. Her husband was Carter Solomon. Her son was Sloan Solomon. He's your brother Victor."

Victor looked from Sloan nursing his legs on the floor with utter disbelief on his face to the satisfied Fang to Stryker who looked back at Victor with sympathy. Victor laughed, his tone hollow and annoyed. "What kind of crack are you on colonel? Don't even joke about shit like that, it's not funny."

"I'm not joking. I know everything about you, remember?"

"How does he know all of this?" Victor jerked his head at Fang.

"He found me years ago, before I met you and Logan. He asked me about the both of you and I told him everything I knew up to that point."

Suddenly Victor felt nauseous. His eyes were strangely watery and he took a moment to watch his wife who was now fully awake. She didn't move but mouthed, "_The kids?_"

"_Todd and Chloe_," he mimed back. He granted her a smile. "_I love you._"

"So, I'm going to give you a final warning, yield or your brother's the first one that gets the life sucked out of him."

"Don't do it Victor," Stryker commanded.

Meav blinked once. "_Don't_."

Sloan shook his head.

Victor prepared himself. He drew his shoulders up, flexed his biceps, and puffed out his chest. "Fuck you."

Fang motioned to Age-O. "Kill the human."

Age-O turned to exert his power up Stryker's nose when a foot appeared on the ladder and swung up into his face. Todd parted from the wall, seized the pistol from Panic and silenced him with a throat shot. He freed Stryker from the pole and tossed him the Walter. Stryker fired off three bullets at Age-O's chest. Todd scooped up Meav and disappeared. Fang made a dog leap for Stryker and Victor met him head-on, driving his claws in deep. He heard scattered gunshots on all sides and monstrous jaws clamped down on his neck. Snarling with all the ferocity often deadly beasts Victor parted Fang's body company with an ear and a hand. Fang fell back and bounded off into the darkened hallways.

Victor knelt, panting. "Stryker?"

"I'm here, I got Black Hole."

"Slo? _Slo_…_?_"

"Victor," Stryker said softy.

Sloan was sprawled on the floor, his body contorting grotesquely from the bullet entrenched in his chest. Victor came to his side, stroking his cheek with a single knuckle. "Sloan…"

"I didn't know Victor, did you?" Sloan spluttered, gagging on his own blood.

"I didn't know either, but I'll take care of you now, I promise. Just hold on."

"They need you on the eastern side. Go on, I'll be alright," Sloan faltered.

"I just found out who you are, damn it, I'm not going to fucking leave you, do you hear me? Stay with me, look at me Sloan."

"D-door's that way, bro." Sloan's face pulled back in a half grin forever and his skin simultaneously went cold, white, still.

Victor saw a recollection: Stryker shot Jimmy down, wiping his memory and leaving him dead to Victor. Now he saw Sloan just as motionless and lost to him. Victor pulled Sloan's back to his chest and held an arm across his limp neck, rocking on his knees. How long he sat there, cradling his baby brother he had no idea. The pains of his recent battle stung him everywhere; his arms, his legs, his chest. Soon he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"We have to go, Victor. The others need your help."

"I'm not leaving him."

"Come on, I'll help you up. This is not the best place to be right now. We have to leave."

"Get away from me Stryker."

"Victor-,"

He let go of Sloan and hoisted Stryker into the air as far as his steely arms would allow. "Why didn't you say something to me? To him? I lost one brother to you and now the other! You took my family from me you son of a bitch!"

"You still have a wife and children that are going to die if you don't go to the others. Put me down."

"Why isn't Sloan still alive? Jimmy and I are both invincible, so why isn't he?"

"He didn't have your father; he had your human mother and a different mutant father. He's gone now and this shouting won't bring him back. He told you not to surrender now pull yourself together and do what you were fucking born to do!"

Victor let Stryker fall unceremoniously into a heap. "I can't. I couldn't save Jimmy—or Sloan. What makes you think I can protect the others? Jimmy was the guardian, I'm the murderer, the monster….and Sloan was—innocent, just innocent."

"If you think that you're nothing but an assassin then get out there and do what you know how to. You never resigned with me, Victor, so I am _ordering_ you to go kick those mutants' asses!"

Victor swallowed and looked away from the body of the brother he had known to be for perhaps three minutes, no more. "Stay with him."

**Please stick with it to find out the ending! Feedback is welcome as always and encouraged. ;)**


	12. Chapter 12: Until the Sky Falls

**This is the end and I've enjoyed writing this story like you wouldn't believe. Thanks to all of you who commented, added the story to your alert, and put it as your favorite. Take care.**

The floor was littered with bodies from each side and the tile had been repainted in deep red. Manson could be heard issuing orders from just up ahead, but Victor had trouble seeing him over the countless heads of enemy mutants. He sank onto his haunches and cleared his way through the sea of opponents, slaying many by the sheer force of slamming into them and others by a defensive swipe to their gut with his claws. He arrived beside Manson in due time, welcoming the next attacking wave.

"Took you long enough," Manson complained, laying a mutant flat as it collided with his turned shoulder.

"Fang found us," Victor responded with a lump forming in his throat. "Killed Penn, stabbed Stryker, and shot Sloan. Penn and Sloan are dead, Stryker's with Sloan's body."

Manson dropped his arms, petrified and Victor had to pivot him aside to protect him from an attack. "They're dead?"

"Todd got Meav, Chloe, and the kids out okay."

"_Kids?_"

"Twins, a boy and a girl. But-Sloan-is-_dead._" Victor beat his fist into his foe's face with every word. "And I will _murder_ that fucking son of a bitch that killed him! Fang broke his legs and Black Hole shot him at point blank range and I couldn't do a fucking thing about it!"

"Focus Victor," said Manson strongly. "If Todd left to get the women then Eli's on his own at Foley's. Go help him and don't tell anyone about Penn and Slo. Hurry!"

Once Victor came up on Foley's he saw that Eli was doing perfectly fine on his own. Despite his disability Eli held his own within the circle of opponents. One red haired girl performed a series of acrobatic moves to avoid her quarry who was chucking shards of metal at her. Victor decided that her need was greater than Eli's and came to her aid. The male mutant caught her in her ribs with a shard as Victor overtook him. He took a leaf from Fang's book and viciously stamped on the mutant's skull.

"You okay?" he called to the girl.

"I'm fine."

"Victor, Taggs needs you in the food court," Eli shouted. "I've got it under control here!"

Navigating the hallways was almost suicide. He pushed his way through dueling couples and more than once coming across the unlucky ally who had fought their last battle standing alone. As he ran on all fours Victor saw repeated flashbacks of his children entering the world, of Meav screaming for him, of Sloan and his blank, clouded eyes. The battle was not even near to being over and already two of the original ten were slain. How much longer could they outlast the swarm of hostile mutants? Entering the food court, Victor realized briefly that he hadn't even had the chance to hold his son.

Taggs let out a cry as tentacles snaked around his ankles and dragged him in closer to the awaiting mutants seeking cover behind one of the pillars. Victor charged into the pillar and it cracked at its base, toppling onto the unsuspecting enemy. Taggs wriggled out and away from the tentacles and gave Victor the thumbs up.

"Thanks, I thought everyone had forgotten me."

"What happened to the others?" Victor questioned.

"I sent them to Stryker; he said that he was under attack."

Stryker had been with Sloan's body…

"You okay Victor? You look terrible."

"We have to get to Stryker now."

"Why?"

"Sloan," Victor said quickly before turning tail and sprinting for the unoccupied western front. Immediately an unbearable high-pitched sound rent through his ears and he keeled over on his knees, wincing in pain. Suddenly he felt something cave into the back of his knee and it dislocated. He threw up an arm to shield his face and his elbow bent in the opposite position. Pointed pieces of ivory sank deep into the flesh on the back of his neck. The energy seeped out of him, draining his brain, his lungs, his blood. Foul breath bristled the hairs on the back of his neck as Fang sucked his powers away.

The claws released him and he lay still, gulping back in fresh air and life itself. He heard glass shattering some hundred feet away and a gunshot. A new pair of hands turned him over and snapped his limbs back onto place. A tear drop or two freed itself from his eyes. The ally wrapped Victor's arm around their shoulders and up righted him.

"Work with me here Victor, I can't carry you."

"I told you to stay with Sloan," said Victor feebly.

"Sloan's gone. I turned my back on him for three seconds and then he was gone."

"What?"

"I'm sorry."

"How the hell did you get down here?"

"I walked genius. Now stand up straight, you're too heavy when you sag like that."

"Then leave me here."

Obediently Stryker dropped him and kicked him in the stomach. "You don't get it, do you? They can't win without you so stop being so damn selfish!"

Darien and Grant burst into the hall with a flood of supporting mutants on their flank.

"Get up!" Stryker commanded.

Now Eli and his back up were here, blocking off another exit for Fang to retreat out of while Taggs kept up his offense.

"Get _up!_"

Manson and Bredan brought up the last group. Todd pushed his way to the front of the crow. No one dared to interfere in the battle between Taggs and Fang lest they compromise Taggs's concentration.

"Get up Victor!

Why was he hearing that voice? Was it his mind taunting him? The owner of that voice had died at least an hour ago in his arms. Yet, it sounded so lifelike, so real and clear, so existing in the atmosphere outside of Victor's mind, so when he saw a figure emerge from the gathering of mutants, he wondered just how roughly the supersonic scream had rattled his brains.

"You and me, Victor, we'll take him together, but you have to stand up."

Behind him Victor heard Stryker gasp, "Impossible."

Sloan relieved Taggs of his burden and motioned to Victor. "There's nowhere for him to run. Help me take him down."

Victor's inner beast gave way to the human and living being that was fighting for its very existence. Victor Creed released the beast and embraced the man. He and Fang were of the same mind when they groped for each other's hearts. Fang's power went into effect, persuading the puncture marks to become permanent in Victor's skin. Victor held on with every ounce of mutant power he possessed still burning in his blood stream.

"Sloan!"

His brother morphed his entire right arm into a seamless, sparkling blade and gained momentum, soaring at Victor and Fang still locked by the heart. "Victor, get down!"

In one clean swipe Sloan severed Fang's head in half diagonally. Victor felt his powers surge back into him and tore his claw away from the half-headed corpse. He closed his eyes gratefully, licking the blood on his lip.

Thunderous cheers arose from the crowd. Taggs and Manson were the first ones to him, slapping his back. If he could bruise he surely would have from all the times the surviving mutants smacked it. At a loss for words Manson nodded to him. Taggs whistled his appreciation, causing Victor's eardrums to tingle. He aimed a kick at Taggs who dodged it and began to break up the throng. Just shy of the last ring of celebrators Todd stopped him and extended his hand

"Not bad Vike."

"Meav?"

"Chloe's takin' care of her and the kids; they're safe."

Victor tightened his grip. "Thank you."

Todd winked at him with the comment, "They're nice-looking kids, y'know."

Standing apart from the mutants looking unsure of himself was Stryker. His bleeding shoulder was creating a small puddle on the floor. He raised his eyebrows at Sloan who Taggs had in a friendly headlock. "How'd he do it? You and I both watched him die; I even felt his pulse just to be sure and didn't get a beat."

"I don't know, he'll tell me soon enough if he knows, but you should get that shoulder looked at. The pipe went all the way through, didn't it?

"Yes, but I expect they'll look at it when you take me back. Don't worry, I won't tell them anything about what happened. After all, I still haven't seen the outside of this place so I still have no idea where I am."

"I guess you want me to say thank you for Meav, the kids, Slo, for winning, right?"

Stryker shrugged his good shoulder. "Not at all, as long as I don't have to thank you for not killing me."

"I don't get you Stryker. Yesterday you were ready to piss yourself at the sight of me because you were scared shitless that I was going to maul you. You bailed Jimmy and me out of prison, made us break contact, tried to kill us with Wade, wiped Jimmy's memory, then you turn around and help deliver my kids, carry my wife through battle, and come looking for _me,_ to actually help me. People don't just change like that overnight or even at all."

"Of course they do," Stryker objected. "Wasn't it only a short while ago that you threatened Kayla simply because you were angry, but not even at her? You would have killed her if Logan hadn't stopped you. Yet, that side of you is long gone now. You committed yourself to _other people_ which is something I'd never have believed you were capable of doing."

"Well, then I have an excuse, you don't. What changed you?"

"The same thing that changed you."

"Which is what?"

"I have no idea, but I know it's the same thing. You and I were similar in our greed, revenge, and anger for six years, but we both set those monsters free. Maybe it's war; if it doesn't break you, it makes you."

"I'm not taking you back. They probably think that you're dead anyway. Bredan can fly you out of state if you need him to"

"You're just going to let me go? After everything?"

"Don't sound so disappointed. And don't thank me. I think we're about even now." Victor opened his hand for Stryker's who took it warmly with a genuine look of understanding.

"I quit colonel."

"I was going to fire you anyway."

Sloan popped up behind Victor. He and Stryker shook his hands and Stryker posed the question of his resurrection. Sloan rested his arm on Victor's shoulder. "It was Victor all the way. I started to wonder if he could heal other people back when I had that miraculous healing from Nuke's poison. I figured it couldn't just happen, so I came to the conclusion that you, being a healer, transferred your powers somehow to me and in the process you took back any wound. Same concept applies here. I felt the bullet fall out and my legs mended. When I woke up you were gone and Stryker was looking the other way, so I took off running to look for you."

"You're saying that I healed you?"

"Only explanation, yeah?"

Stryker nodded. "It's a plausible theory."

"No theory, it happened directly to me."

"You know Slo, now that you mention it, I did feel a slight tingling in my chest and legs back there," Victor recollected.

"Didn't I tell you that you were special?" Stryker said to Victor who agreed wholeheartedly. For once, the reality of being born a mutant was a blessing.

Victor lay Benson down in his crib and winded up the musical lullaby device for him. In the neighboring crib Allison peered at him through the wooden bars and bounced excitedly. Her glowing face lit up the darkened room as her inherited blue eyes watched her father. Victor reached over the caged side and lifted her gingerly.

"You should be asleep." Victor whispered to her. He rocked her for a while, swaying in motion to the lullaby and soon enough she too was asleep, breathing softly in his arms. He draped her favorite blanket over her and crept out of the room. In the den Meav was sitting on the couch waiting for him.

"So?" Victor asked eagerly.

"They had a girl, Natasha," said Meav happily. Midsummer had brought about the end of Chloe's pregnancy and Meav had just returned from visiting Taggs and Chloe in the hospital for the delivery of their daughter. It had been almost a year since the mutant group had disbanded to seek solitary homes, though none of them out of state. Penn was laid to rest in Manson's own backyard ten blocks away and Manson kept a constant eye open for any movement of mutants, though there had been none since Fang's downfall. Grant and Darien lived as roommates in an apartment not far from the now demolished mall site. They had all watched the mall's remains knocked to the ground and made into a parking garage. The word to describe it would be bittersweet. After all, everyone but Victor had lived almost half a decade in that sanctuary and to see it destroyed was a way of letting go of the former life before Sloan had found Victor.

Sloan took up teaching a combat class in Boston to support his brother's family with whom he lived with. Not far from his classes Bredan once again was flying for the airlines. The young mutant who had healed Todd's broken leg was in a steady relationship with him. Meav encouraged Todd to go through with it and believed it would prove to be a great change for him. After months of searching for his human girlfriend Eli relocated her and proposed to her just as he had intended to do on the night he had been kidnapped. Their wedding would be held in September.

All seemed well but for one factor that bothered Victor ever so slightly and he felt disgraced to admit it; Stryker. Bredan transported him to Spain, but that had been in October and no one had heard of him since. None of them were certain whether this was a good or bad sign. The thought must have shown on Victor's face, for Meav combed his hear with her fingers comfortingly.

"He said he'd let us know when he's all settled," she reminded him.

"I don't know _why_ it's bothering me and I hate it. He could have ruined my life, you know."

"But instead he saved mine and the kids'. Victor, if he could survive a mutant war then I don't think this will be a problem for him."

The telephone chose that moment to ring and Victor pressed the "Receive" button. "Hello?"

"May I speak to Victor Creed?"

"Colonel Stryker?" said Victor quickly.

"Victor, is that you?"

"Duh."

"Are you all safe? Is everything alright?"

"I was about to ask you that?"

"I'm fine. I've been on the move for a while to avoid government detection but from what information I could gather I found out that they've stopped looking for me-,"

"That's because Manson sent them an anonymous note with your blood sample and they assumed you were killed by mutants."

"Well, tell him thank you for me. How is Meav? And the kids?" Stryker sounded particularly concerned.

"All fine. The kids are walking now, but they haven't shown any mutant signs yet. I'll drop you a call when they do-if they do."

"They will," Stryker promised. "And the others?"

"Everyone is doing fine. Taggs and Chloe actually just had a girl today."

"Really? Congratulate them on my behalf. I'd stay on longer but I have to get moving again. If you don't' hear from me in a month-,"

"I'd better," Victor threatened.

"Stay out of trouble Victor."

"I will if you will."

The good bye was abrupt, but the weight of worry had lifted from Victor's shoulders as he hung up and Meav hugged his waist. "See? I told you."

Victor steered her out on to the back patio to watch the stars alight the deep blue sky. Hand in hand they breathed in the cool summer air while leaning against each other. Meav snuggled herself in closer to him.

"Victor, do you know something? If the sky came crashing down right now and the world ended at this moment, I'd be perfectly happy."

Victor kissed her dark chocolate strand of hair, grinning through it. The irony; he'd had the same thought not too long ago and it still held meaning for him as it would continue to. He felt Meav's heart thump against his chest and a falling star crossed their line of vision in the dark.


End file.
